Uttar Pradesh electricity department employees on Sunday ended their 72-hour strike after several rounds of talks between their leaders and state energy minister A K Sharma.

The protesting employees, who had started their strike at 10 pm on March 16, called it off at around 3 pm on Sunday.

Announcing the withdrawal of strike, Shailendra Dubey, convener of Vidyut Karmacharis Sanyukt Sangharsh Samiti, said, "A number of rounds of talks were held (with the government). We raised our problems and the (energy) minister agreed positively to fix them.

"Respecting the directions of the Chief Minister (Yogi Adityanath), the positive dialogue with the energy minister, respecting the high court, we have decided to call off our 72-hour symbolic protest one day in advance in view of massive public interest." Speaking to reporters after the meeting, UP energy minister Sharma said, "I thank the employees of the electricity department for calling off their protest...I would request them to direct their employee friends to resume their duties, especially at those places where power supply was disrupted, be it a feeder or a sub-station." Sharma said the samiti held several rounds of talks.

"Some of the points during the talks were documented. We will talk about those, and make an effort to try to take them to a logical conclusion," the minister said.

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