Tension at electricity headquarters in capital, engineers strike on

Panaji, July 19 (UNI) Tension gripped the headquarters of the State Electricity Department in the capital with a group of people, claiming to be consumers from South Goa, raising slogans demanding uninterrupted power supply even as the pen-down strike of the aggrieved 400 odd enginers of the department entered the second day today.

The consumers, holding banners and placards, asked the department officials not to disrupt functioning of the lines even if the engineers were agitating in protest against Agriculture Minister Francisco Xavier Pascheco's alleged abusing and slapping of one of their colleague recently.

Tight security arrangements had been made at the electricity office with a posse of policemen positioned to meet any eventuality.

A police picket had also been posted at the residence of the junior engineer as a precautionary measure.

The engineers, who gathered at the chief electrical engineer's office to discuss the issue, commented that Mr Pascheco had been instigating the mob against them as an offensive stragegy to counter the public opinion going against the minister.

Interestingly, the engineers deferred holding a massive rally today following an assurance by Power Minister Digambar Kamat, but decided to continue the ''pen-down strike''.

The leader of the engineers forum Mr Bharat Niglye said the decision followed a meeting they had this morning on the advice of Mr Kamat. They were demanding sacking of the minister from the cabinet or initiating criminal action against him.

''The agitation will contiue till the government took suitable action against the minister who is facing a police probe following a complaint lodged by the engineer victim,'' he said.

The minister, it might be recalled, had slapped a legal notice on the impugled engineer threatening to initiate civil/criminal defamation proceedings if the JE did not apologise.

He maintained that he called tne engineer to his house only to ''reprimand him'' following complaints of frequent power failure in his constituency.

Meanwhile, the United Goans Democratic Party(UGDP) had, in a statement, demanded ouster of the minister from the cabinet for his misconduct.

UNI BM MAZ SHB BST1832