Power employees stage protest against bid to privatise dept
Varanasi:
Electricity department employees
, under the banner of
Vidyut Karmachari Samyukt Sangharsh Samiti
, staged a protest at the managing director's office in Bhikharipur on Tuesday against privatisation of Purvanchal and Dakshinanchal Electricity Distribution Corporations.
All workers will hold a protest meeting at the Bhikharipur office from 2pm to 5pm on Wednesday. The powermen recited Sundarkand at the Hanuman temple. Purvanchal committee of the state electricity junior engineers organisation agreed to continue their struggle against
electricity privatisation
on a single platform at the request of the struggle committee, with hundreds of junior and assistant engineers joining the Bhikharipur protest meeting. The struggle committee accused the power corporation chairman of manipulating figures to exaggerate losses and burdening common consumers, with the aim of aiding private companies. Speakers at the gathering said the protest would continue until May 28. The struggle committee has issued notice for
indefinite work boycott
from May 29 against the privatisation move.
Before the boycott, central officials of the struggle committee will begin statewide tours from May 21.
The meeting was presided over by O P Singh and conducted by Ankur Pandey. The meeting was addressed by Mayashankar Tiwari, Narendra Verma, SK Singh, Neeraj Bind, Manish Rai, Pankaj Jaiswal, Vijay Singh, Jiutlal, Ved Prakash Rai and others.
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The Print
3 days ago
- The Print
Another grand pran pratishtha at Ayodhya's Ram temple, this time with Yogi front & centre
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Indian Express
3 days ago
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Pran Pratishtha of Ram Darbar performed at Ayodhya temple
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The Hindu
3 days ago
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Among those conducting the ceremony were Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, also the head priest of the Gorakhnath Math in Gorakhpur, along with other priests. Devotees, unmindful of curbs, stood outside the temple complex, singing, dancing and chanting 'Jai Shri Ram' all the while. Restrictions on vehicular movement during the inauguration ceremony by the administration and the temple trust's decision not to issue entry passes to visitors between 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Thursday failed to deter the devotees, some of whom had come from as far as Nepal. Gogan Prasad, from Nepal's capital Kathmandu, was one such devotee. 'I have waited for this moment for long. I had been praying for more than a year for an opportunity to have darshan of Lord Ram. Now that wish will be granted,' said Mr. Prasad who had come from Nepal with a large group of devotees who also appeared overwhelmed on the occasion. 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According to Hindu scriptures, Ganga Dussehra marks the day the holy river Ganga descended to Earth from Lord Shiva's locks, moved by King Bhagirath's penance. The day is considered highly auspicious and symbolises virtue, penance, and the collective well-being of humanity. 'This year, Ganga Dussehra will not only be sacred but also historic, as after a long struggle of 500 years, Lord Ram, known as Raja Ram, will be ceremonially installed on the first floor of the grand Ram Temple in Ayodhya,' Mahant Raghuvar Sharan, chief priest of Rasik Niwas Temple in Ayodhya, told PTI ahead of the event. Mr. Adityanath offered prayers at the Ram Temple and visited the Hanumangarhi temple nearby. Adding a political touch to the proceedings of the day, he said in a post on X, 'This auspicious occasion is a new expression of 'Ek Bharat-Shreshtha Bharat'. Victory to Siyavar Shri Ramachandra!' 'Today, in the holy birthplace of Lord Shri Ram, Ayodhya Dham, we are getting the great fortune of becoming a witness to the programme organised for the Pran-Pratishtha of the holy idols of gods in the eight temples including Shri Ram Darbar on the first floor of Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Temple,' he said. The inauguration of the temple in January 2024 had marked the culmination of a decades-long campaign, mostly under the Hindutva banner, to claim a disputed religious site in Ayodhya. It was months before the Lok Sabha elections and 34 years after BJP veteran L.K. Advani's 'Mandir Wahin Banayenge' speech during his Rath yatra that shaped the Ram mandir politics. The 16th century Babri mosque at the spot, which many Hindu devotees believe is the place where Ram was born, was the centre of a simmering dispute for decades. The mosque was demolished by 'kar sewaks' on December 6, 1992, triggering communal riots that left hundreds dead. After a long legal battle, the Supreme Court in 2019 ruled in favour of the construction of the temple. It also ordered allotment of a five-acre plot for building a mosque. The scrapping of Article 370 that gave special status to Jammu and Kashmir, building a grand Ram temple in Ayodhya and the implementation of a Uniform Civil Code (UCC) have been the BJP's poll plank for decades.
