MARGAO
The Electricity Employees Union (Goa) has made an impassioned plea to the government to regularize the services of the 321 line helpers as the Electricity Department has set in motion the process to fill up the vacancies.
In fact, Union general secretary Raju Mangueshkar said the government which speaks of Atmanirbhar and Swayampura Goem should get the 321 contract line helpers regularized since almost all of the workers are niz Goenkars and sons of the soil.
Addressing the media, Mangueshkar said these 321 contact line helps have been working in the electricity department for more than 12-14 years. “Our union has been raising demands with the Chief Electrical Engineer to regularize their services in the department. The workers risk their lives while working on live lines and patrolling the same when fault comes as these lines pass through thick forests and dense vegetation irrespective of seasons, the rainy season is worse as thick vegetation covers the ground area, thus exposing them to various reptiles and other insects to provide uninterrupted power supply over all of Goa”, he added.
He, however, lamented that without paying heed to the demand and the claim of these workers, the government has come out with an advertisement for the recruitment of 300 line helpers.
“This has caused resentment amongst the electricity department workers as it would result in great injustice to the contract line helpers. They feel it is a conspiracy indulging in gimmicks to provide jobs to unemployed and use them as party workers of politicians of the ruling party”, he said.
The EEU (Goa) has demanded that the Goa Electricity department should immediately regularize on a priority basis the services of all the contractor line helpers in all the newly created regular vacancies. Moreover, the Union demanded that since many of the contract workers who have served the department for the last 12-14 years have crossed the age of 45 years, the age limit criteria should be relaxed in respect of existing service contract line helpers.
