Open house: What contingency plan should Chandigarh Administration make to deal with strikes?

Power outage for more than 24 hours in a city like Chandigarh is seemingly unreal. The Administration did the right thing invoking the ESMA Act and that should always be invoked when essential services like health, transport, electricity, etc, are affected. The neighbouring states should have helped. A procedure should be chalked out for handling such contingency situations.

Sapna Sharda, Chandigarh

UT mishandled strike

The Administration mishandled the recent strike by the electricity staff in UT. If the Administration had to agree to their demands, why did not it do it early? Why the residents were made to suffer.

The Administration must declare power supply as essential service and have a contingency plan to take the help of the Army if the power staff go on strike. Drills on regular intervals should be carried out the same as the Fire Department. Unions must be taken into confidence and their genuine demands considered at the first instance, rather than agreeing to them after the damage is done.

Capt Amar Jeet, Kharar

Lack of proper planning

UT always keep its house in order Since the recent strike was not ‘suddenly’ resorted to by the employees of the Electricity Department, it was highly incumbent upon the UT Administration to ensure that some contingency plan was put in place to ward off such an unsavoury situation. Power outages across the city speak volumes of its lack of proper planning to effectively deal with the strike. How come the striking employees were able to snap the power supply as per their plan? The Administration ought to make alternative arrangements. Fixing the responsibility of senior officials is of paramount importance.

Vinayak, Panchkula

ESMA should have been invoked early

Arrangements should be made with the help of the Army or any other institution to take care of any eventuality. The intentional damage to the electricity infrastructure had put the residents as well as patients at major hospitals to a great inconvenience. The Administration should dismiss the erring employees and also recover the costs of damages from them. Too much job security and non-accountability have ruined many government institutions. Stringent steps are needed such as linking salaries and perks to performance to stem the rot. ESMA should have been invoked one day before the strike.

KC Rana, Chandigarh

A lesson for UT Administration

Having received enough rap from the High Court, residents and its own employees, the UT Administration would have learnt a lesson not to take the strike notice so lightly. Keep a contingency plan ready. Just relying on the help from Punjab and Haryana during the strike was an unwise move. Bureaucrats failed to realise that employees’ counterparts were always their sympathisers, and no substitutes. Let us hope the Administration will not repeat this folly in such situations in future and keep non-partisan personnel ready to take the charge, as was eventually done by engaging the Army MES personnel during the power staff strike.

SC Luthra, Chandigarh

Residents taken for a ride

Residents were taken for a ride since the UT authorities failed to make timely alternative arrangements by deploying the Army MES to restore power supply in the city. The crisis could have been averted if the authorities concerned had sorted out the issues of the agitating employees well in advance. Need of the hour is to have a foolproof standard operating procedure to avert power supply crisis.

Col TBS Bedi (retd), Mohali

Need for introspection

In a democratic setup, each and every individual has a right to protest peacefully and the employees of the Electricity Department did the same. We can’t blame them for all the mess. There is a need to introspect why these employees were forced to go on strike and why their matters were not sorted out through a table talk. The Administration must have a foolproof plan to deal with such situations. But the administration turned a deaf ear to the problems of the employees and did not make any alternative arrangement in case of technical snags. At least, the Administration could have engaged contractual staff to overcome this type of problem. Taking it as their moral responsibility, the striking employees should have done their duty when the whole city had plunged into darkness.

Bir Devinder Singh Bedi, Chandigarh

Staff should also act responsibly

Such strikes are the end result of simmering discontent and grievances which are not redressed for a long time.

To prevent such situations, establishments should have a grievances cell, which should resolve problems early and in an impartial way. Also, the employees of establishments providing essential services should be made aware that their role is vital and any disruption inconveniences the public, so they should act responsibly. Union leaders should be men of integrity and not just self-seekers. If strikes are resorted to despite efforts of managements, punishment should be strict enough to discourage such behaviour.

Bubby Soin, Chandigarh

Dismiss erring employees

There should be a complete ban on protests and strikes by the government employees. A new clause/law should be incorporated to the rules to curb the menace of strikes. The services of government officials who indulge in strike or protests should be terminated.

Abhilasha Gupta, Mohali

Negotiate with agitating staff

The Administration should prepare a contingency plan to deal with strike such as one resorted to by employees of the Electricity Department. It should also get electricity supply from Punjab and Haryana in case of such strike. The authorities concerned should negotiate with striking workers to solve their issues as soon as possible. Strike is not a solution to every problem.

Adish Sood, Amloh

Admn should Form a special task team

The Administration failed to effectively deal with the strike by the power staff. Residents had a tough time due to the strike and the High Court had to intervene. The Administration should outsource a special task team of engineers and workers to handle such situations.

Sunny Dhaliwal, Chandigarh

Give exemplary punishment

The Administration has failed to sell any of its loss-making undertakings, including hospitality units, for years. But it is in a hurry to privatise its profitable power department, just to please the Centre. The staff had given two months’ notice to the Administration to go on strike, but no action was taken to avert it, nor were necessary measures taken. All persons responsible for pushing the city into darkness and putting the lives of patients in danger must be given an exemplary punishment. In Chandigarh, the whole power system is run and operated by linesmen or foreman, while senior officials have no idea of equipment installed in substations or of distribution lines.

Suresh Verma, Chandigarh

Listen to employees’ grievances

The UT Administration must listen to the grievances of its employees and try to keep good relations with them. The UT electricity officers should have a contingency plan to deal with such crisis. Everyone knows that electricity is an essential utility, so that it should be ensured such situation does not repeat in future.

MR Bhateja, Nayagaon

Monitor situation regularly

Had the Administration regularly monitored the situation in the Electricity Department in the past several years, the problem of strike would not have arisen. To avoid such strikes in future, the Administration should bring more and more services under ESMA and put the culprits damaging the public property behind the bars or stop their increment. To judge the working of any department, the Administration should take feedback from residents from time to time.

Savita Kuthiala, Chandigarh

UT needs to react to situation quickly

The Administration needs to have a contingency plan to minimise losses and maintain normal functioning of services. The Administration can quickly react to the situation without thinking about it too much or worse, panicking, so that things become a lot easier to handle.

Anita K Tandon, Kharar

Take disciplinary action against staff

The Chandigarh Administration must take necessary disciplinary action against the striking power men for causing inconvenience to the general public and that too for such a longer period of time. It must also ensure that such situations do occur in future at any cost.

Sanjay Chopra, Mohali

keep in mind — With rights, come duties

Employees of the Electricity Department should understand the critical task they are expected to fulfil. How could they just hold the entire city to ransom? Their actions, in terms of strike, made people suffer in many ways. It is rightly said that with rights, comes duty. They should have protested without causing problems to the public, and adhering to their ethical conduct.

Garv Bhupesh, Panchkula

It is A failure on the part of Administration

The UT Administration was informed well in advance about the strike, yet it failed to have a backup plan. How could the Administration let the city go powerless even for a day or two. The important and urgent work, at least, should have continued without hindrance.

Anju Mohan, Chandigarh

Rebuild trust between management, staff

With the UT’s failure to have a contingency plan, most part of the city remained without power and life virtually came to a standstill. There is need to have a power backup mechanism. There is also a need to rebuild trust between the management and staff. It seemed the problems of staff were overlooked, so there is a need to improve the grievance-redressal system. Hospitals need to be equipped with a strong power backup system. Going on strike is the right of employees, but if someone sabotages the power supply infrastructure he must be punished. This strike exposed the weak power supply system. The Administration should not adopt the wait-and-watch policy and do something to have a permanent solution to a problem.

Vidya Sagar Garg, Panchkula

Hold negotiations with union leaders

The Administration must have a solid plan to negotiate with its employees so that their demands are settled within a specified time. It should have a Plan B for maintaining services in such a situation. Such manmade disasters can be handled with prior planning and preparations. We must learn from the covid-19 pandemic. Many agitations can be avoided if negotiations are held with staff through their leaders.

Bharat Bhushan Sharma, Chandigarh

Take the help of adjoining states

The Administration as well as employees have to understand that we cannot put on halt such services due to some vested interests as it affects the life of common man. The UT has to take steps such as making mandatory installation of solar power plants in every building, enacting special laws for emergency services and taking action accordingly, privatising electricity department in a phased manner and securing the job of employees with all benefits. Special staff can be hired on a deputation basis to meet emergency situations.

Avinash goyal, Chandigarh

Privatise Power Department

The recent power outage reflects upon poor crisis management on the part of the UT Administration. Lives of many patients were at risk. The Administration should go ahead with the privatisation of the Electricity Department to avoid such crisis in future. Many countries have privatised their electricity-distribution services to promote competition and efficiency in the power sector. The administration should put in place an effective contingency plan so that future outages can be prevented and public is not left in the lurch.

Dr Anil Kumar Yadav, Chandigarh

Admn needs to adopt proactive approach

The Administration needs to have a contingency plan to deal with agitating employees. Holding talks with the employees’ bodies and acceding to their genuine demands or exploring other options to resolve their concerns will go a long way in preventing such situations. The dispensation may also mull stringent action against those employees who hold the city to ransom by denying passage of essential services. It must also have a rapid action force to deal with any eventuality arising out of such agitations by employees.

Ramesh K Dhiman, Chandigarh

Sort out problems of employees

To deal with such situations in the future, the authorities must chalk out a proper plan. If there is a disagreement with the employees of a department, the authorities must solve the problem as soon as possible so that the situation does not come down to this. There should be a team on standby to ensure that a protest does not hamper essential services in the city. Most of the work should be automated.

Saikrit Gulati, Chandigarh

QUESTION

There has been a steep rise in cyber crime cases in the city. A large number of the victims falling prey to fraudsters are senior citizens. What measures should the UT police take to safeguard people from cyber fraud?

Suggestions in not more than 70 words can be sent to openhouse@tribunemail.com