The Mayurbhanj unit of the Nesco Power Employees' Union opposed Tata Power's layoff plan. A meeting to pass a resolution to this effect was held here, where union district president Subramaniam Mohanty presided.
Later, a delegation led by Mohanty, former MLA and former Odisha Assembly Deputy Speaker Sananda Marandi, Baripada Municipality Chairman Krushnanand Mohanty and union's assistant general secretary Jyoti Krushna Behera submitted a seven-point charter of demands to the Superintending Engineer (Electrical), Baripada.
The demands include regularisation of issuance of EPF and ESI cards to the metre-readers, inclusion of metre-readers and electricity dues-collectors in the category of skilled workers and implementation of the policy of eight hours' work a day for each and every employee. If the demands are not met early, the union warned to take to the streets.
Prominent among others who took part in the meeting and accompanied the delegation were Chandan Kumar Mohanty, Devashish Behera, Parthasarathi Das, Jnana Ranjan Parida, Krushnapada Mohanta, Jyotilal Biswal, Suman Sanjit Patra, Dinesh Gupta, Pramod Patra, Naveen Dutt, Sanjay Ghosh, Buddheswar Marandi and Pradeep Nath.
Similar protest meetings were held and memoranda were submitted at Executive Engineer Offices at Rairangpur and Udala also, it is learnt.