Yogi Govt allowed transfer of PF contribution of employees to DHFL: employees on strike

The strike by the 45000 power employees against illegal transfer of PF contributions to a private housing company entered the second day on Tuesday, disrupting power supply at many places, the Yogi Government is being accused of transferring not just the employees’ contribution to the PF but also the contribution made by the corporation to the PF accounts. Employees are alleging that a staggering ₹24,000 Crore were transferred by the state government and the entire amount is unlikely to be recovered.

Heavy transactions were made between October 7, 2017 and December 2018. The government records show that in this period GPF money was transacted 60 times. “The largest single transaction of ₹1445 crore was deposited after October 7,”a senior official confided.

The PF Trust was headed by the Chairman of UPPCL, an IAS officer, and it is being alleged that he acted at the behest of political masters. While the Yogi Government is trying to distance itself from the move, the fact that bulk of the transfer took place after Yogi came to power, is being held up against it.

The Yogi government is claiming that the transfer of the money started during the tenure of the Akhilesh Yadav as CM. The government spokesman says that the Uttar Pradesh Power Sector Employees’ Trust had taken the decision in April 2014 to invest some money in “other than nationalised banks” where returns were higher. The first transaction took place in March 17, 2017 while the Yogi Government came to power on March 19, 2017.

Ä senior official claimed that the PF Trust had not given its assent to invest in DHFL. “The officials in Yogi Government should have reacted and taken strict action against the officials who made such investment. But nothing of the sort happened,” he said.

Congress national general secretary Priyanka Gandhi too reacted to this unlawful transaction. In a tweet she said that transaction through RTGS shows that Rs 4100 crore were transferred to DHFL from UPPCL’s PF account.

Congress state president Ajay Kumar Lalu said that Congress will fight till the power employees get their hard earned money back. “This is hard earned money of employees and the Congress cacnot allow the government to splurge this,” he said.

Meanwhile, around 45,000 employees, including engineers, of UP Power Corporation Limited went on a 48- hour strike from Monday, demanding an undertaking from the state government on payment of provident funds to employees.

Power Employee’s Joint Action Committee (PEJAC) convenor Shailendra Dubey claimed that the strike was a total success.

The state government has decided to act tough against the agitating power employees and has directed all district magistrates to lodge FIRs against employees if they tried to damage government property or obstruct power supply.

Shailendra Dubey said that the  action committee had warned the UPPCL that if their demands for issuance of a notification by the government taking responsibility for safe return of their providet fund money invested in DHFL by the Uttar Pradesh Power Sector Employees’ Trust and action against IAS officers, including former chairman of UPPCL, responsible for it were not met by Tuesday, the employees would intensify the agitation.

A PEJAC press release issued on Monday said that the UPPCL deposited ₹2631.20 crore of the GPF and ₹1491.50 crore of CPF of employees in the DHFL. However, ₹1185.50 crore of the GPF and ₹669.30 crore of CPF were withdrawn by the Trust. The action committee alleged that over ₹2,200 crore of the provident fund deposit had been lost while the deposit in the DHFL was made on an annual interest rate of 7.75 per cent.