Thousands of employees of the Power Development Department have gone on indefinite strike resulting in a major outage amid extreme cold wave that has pushed large parts of Jammu and Kashmir to the brink.

The situation has demanded the government to call in the army that has been assisting the state-run power firms to restore power.
The valley is already facing long power cuts during winters because of the huge gap between supply and demand.

As many as 20,000 employees are protesting against the government move to merge J&K Power Development Department into the Power Grid Corporation of India and the handing over of the assets to private companies.

Jammu and Kashmir administration wrote to the Defence Ministry about the fact power has been restored in some areas.
Sources said the employees, who have been on strike from Friday midnight, decided not to carry out any repair and maintenance work until the government accepts their demands.

The employees want a reversal of government decision to privatise assets, regularisation of daily wage power employees, and the release of salaries.
The strike resulted in a complete breakdown of electricity in several districts. Outages were also reported in Jammu and Srinagar as well.

From linesmen to senior engineers, every employee of the PDD became part of the strike since yesterday. According to officials, negotiations were held with striking employees but failed to break the ice.

The employees said the assets built over decades by successive governments in J&K are now up for sale under Union territory administration. The general secretary of power employee union, Sachin Tickoo, said his organisation is opposing the systematic transfer of assets. “They want to give 50% shareholding to the power grid which is against the interests of Jammu and Kashmir" he said.

He said the talks with the government have been taking place at a lower level and no top government functionary has come forward to resolve the crisis and assurance that the power sector will not be sold to private companies.

Recently, Nitishwar Kumar, a UP cadre IAS officer who is principal Secretary to J&K Lt Governor Manoj Sinha, has taken charge as the head of the power department. Kashmir is shivering under cold wave with the temperature hovering in and around 6 degrees.