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PDB employees threaten strike to oppose DESA from Sept 1
PDB trade unionist* Tuesday asked the government to cx-asc from launching Dhaka Electricity Supply Authority (DESA) discarding "hankering after foreign aid" and threat ened strike from the day it goes into operation, report* UNB
All the 23,000 employee* and worker* of Power Development Board will awing Into wildcat atrlke form the day DESA will be launched, said Md Zafrul Hasan. General Secretary of Jatlya Bidyut Sramlk Federation, at a press conference
Instead, the federation lewder* auggested, "motivation and activities recently evolved for efficient management of the board should be sustained.
They demanded scrapping of the DESA Ordinance and alternative measures instead to reduce systems loss and re
move other mismanagement in the power sector.
The pro-BNP union convened the press briefing at the WAPDA building Tuesday after noon to iterate employees and workers "no" to DESA in the wake of Its ensuing launch on September 1.
Present at the news conference were also other central leader* of the federation, which claim* to represent at least 50 per cent of the PDB worker* and employee*, including It* President Kazi Mosharraf Hossain and Senior Vice-President Kazi liablbur Rahman
DESA will neither yield welfare to the power sector nor to the country Itself, they viewed and suggested the government not fete bow to the World Bank "pressure".
About systems loss, the fed eralion leaders estimated of
the 42 per cent system toss, mechanical loss Is more than 20 per cent which cannot be avoided.
They, however, admitted the rest 22 per cent theft in the power transmission Is too high and should be brought down.
But they expressed skeptictom about DESAs ability to slash the systems loss. Rather, they apprehended that admin totrattve cost* In the power sector would go up with launching DESA.
The union leaders vehe mently opposed the general conviction that PDB men are •otely involved in the power runout
"It's a shared theft, people in remote villages are also tn volved In this activity even the rich section of citizenry steals power taking the advan tage of self-billing system," said Hasan.
Asked why they were opposed to DESA, the employees' leaders said terms of employ ment of the employees and workers to be transferred to DESA were still not clear and, therefore, they suffer from uncertainty.
Moreover, DESA is the start of privatisation of PDB which the employees and workers can never accept, they said.
DESA, a company to look after power transmission in the greater Dhaka, is due to be launched on September 1. PDB's 5 thousand employees and workers will work under the company.
World Bank suggested the move to reduce the unabated systems loss in power distribution.
DESA launching is a major condition to receipt of donors future assistance to the power sector of Bangladesh.
Apart from Jatlya Bldyut Federation, all the other four workers and employees' unions have also announced wildcat strike to resist DESA.
The PDB employees and workers observed three-day strike May 16-18 this year to press for scrapping the DESA Ordinance.