UP power staff end agitation
Special Correspondent

LUCKNOW: The agitating employees of Uttar Pradesh Power Corporation have called off their agitation following marathon talks with the State Energy Minister, Ramveer Upadhyaya, and the Chairman-cum-Managing Director of the Power Corporation, Navneet Sehgal.
The engineers and employees have been agitating in protest against denial of the benefits of the Sixth Pay Commission recommendations by the State Govt.
According to the convenor of the Joint Action Committee of UP Power Employees & Union, Shailendra Dubey, the strike has been put off till January 19 following assurances by the Energy Minister and the UPPCL management that the Government would review their demand.
Meanwhile, even as the power staff resumed their duties on Friday, import from the Central pool to the State plummeted to 1778 MW following a fall in generation in the Central power plants on account of the oil sector strike.
With the engineers of NTPC reportedly resorting to a work-to-rule agitation from Friday, informed sources said the 1,600-MW gas-based power plants in Dadri, Auraiya and Anta reported a fall in generation on Friday due to the oil strike. Informed sources said oil shortage also affected the functioning of a 210-MW unit of Unchahar power station in Rae Bareli district, and a 500-MW unit of Singrauli power station. The All India Power Engineers Federation has shot off a letter to Union Power Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde asking for his intervention.