Uttar Pradesh Power dept employees' protest turns violent, over 100 detained

LUCKNOW: Scores of Uttar Pradesh Power Corporation Limited workers were today detained after they indulged in a violent protest demanding regularisation of contractual employees, police said.

"The contractual employees of the power department were staging a sit-in dharna to demand regularisation of their employment. When the police tried to remove them, the employees indulged into brick batting," Additional Superintendent of Police Rajesh Kumar said.

"The protesting group went on a rampage and torched two vehicles, including a police jeep and a motorcycle," he said.

"Police then resorted to a baton-charge to disperse the agitating employees," Kumar said adding that, "more than 100 people have been detained in this regard."

Meanwhile, the Power Employees Joint Action Committee has decided to observe black day on February 12.

"The committee has appealed all the power employees for a 48 hours work boycott from February 24," the committee spokesman, Girish Pandey, said today.