MUMBAI, JULY 6: Declaring the decision of the Maharashtra State Electricity Board (MSEB) employees to go on a one-day strike tomorrow as illegal, the Shiv Sena-Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Government today threatened to take action against them, if the need be.

``The strike is illegal as they have not given us the notice as required under the provisions of law. We will not hesitate to take stern action against erring employees for participating in illegal strike,'' Deputy Chief Minister Gopinath Munde, who also holds the Energy portfolio, told media persons.

The Government would not allow power disruption in Mumbai and other big cities , and the situation would be managed by higher officials and employees not participating in the strike, Munde said.

Meanwhile, the leaders of the striking employees, protesting against the privatisation of power distribution, boycotted the meeting called by Munde today.

``It was unfortunate that they boycotted the meeting. Now I have sent them telegrams to reconsider their decision and withdraw the strike call in the interest of the State. We will ensure that there is no disruption either in power generation or distribution,'' Munde said.

The Deputy Chief Minister said he had a marathon meeting with senior officials of the MSEB and Energy Department to ensure that the strike does not affect the routine power supply.

The Deputy Chief Minister felt that the employees were going on strike over an issue, on which no decision had been taken at all. ``They informed me that to protest against the recommendation of the Rajadhyaksha Committee to privatise, they will be going on strike,'' he said, adding, ``unless the proposal is placed before the Cabinet, there is no question of implementing it''.

Munde said the committee had made three recommendations to take steps to make the MSEB commercially viable, setting up a State-level autonomous tariff advisory board and privatisation of distribution of power supply.The MSEB, on its part, had scrutinised the report in detail, and made certain recommendations to the Government.

``We have not taken any decision on these recommendations,'' he added.Ever since the Rajadhyaksha Committee submitted its report to the Government, more than 1.5 lakh employees of the MSEB are on the war path.

``We have no faith in the alliance Government. It had promised that the Enron power project will be dumped in the Arabian sea. But the same Government has sanctioned it for political reasons. Why should we believe such a liar Government,'' a senior leader of the striking employees pointed out.

Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.