A large-scale protest by Telangana power utility workers demanding wage adjustment caused traffic in several areas of central Hyderabad to snarl.
The offices of Hyderabad’s Electricity Generating telanagana Corporation and Telangana Transmission Corporation, located in Hyderabad, were surrounded by hundreds of workers.
The protest halted traffic on the congested highways near Vidyuth Soudha. In response to the Joint Action Committee of several labour unions’ appeal for a “Chalo Vidyuth Soudha,” employees of power utilities from all over the state poured into Hyderabad. They demanded pay revision and an end to the problems facing artisan workers.
The demonstrators requested that the government promptly reveal the salary revision that was due in April of last year while waving flags representing their different employee unions and shouting slogans.
Roadblocks and tension were caused by the protest. Police officers were attempting to get workers to end the protest.
Traffic on the congested Khairatabad-Punjagutta road came to a complete stop. There was a four kilometre long traffic backup there.
Massive traffic backups were also brought on by the protest in the Ravindra Bharathi and Lakdi Ka Pul neighbourhoods. Masab Tank and the area of Mahaveer Hospital experienced traffic jams.
Union leaders claimed that despite numerous rounds of negotiations, Hyderabad’s Electricity distribution firms had not been able to satisfy their requests. Up to 29 demands were made of the workers throughout the protest, with salary revision being the main one.
The general public suffered who travelled from that area and had to wait for hours for the traffic to clear, which turned out to be a big task for the traffic police. Most of the office-going people got stuck in the protest and couldn’t even leave the protest because of the traffic jam, which took hours to clear.
