All India Power Engineers Federation (AIPEF) has urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to consider power sector employees as frontline workers amid the pandemic.

The functioning of hospitals and testing laboratories is largely dependent upon the round the clock supply, and power engineers and technical staff of Discoms play a major role in the fight against COVID-19, it said.

"All India Power Engineers Federation (AIPEF) has urged the Prime Minister to grant the status of front line workers to power sector employees who are maintaining round the clock power supply in pandemic conditions," an AIPEF statement said.

Maintaining electricity supply is important and requires to be given the status of essential service, it added.

The electricity employees and engineers are working day and night to ensure electricity supply to all the consumers and are having contact with the general public and are exposed to COVID-19.

As of today in Maharashtra alone, a total of 5,890 power sector employees are corona positive and 186 have died, AIPEF spokesperson V K Gupta said in the statement.

In Uttar Pradesh, similar conditions exist for power sector employees. As many as 15 engineers, including four Superintending engineers, more than 24 junior engineers, and 50 technicians have died. The engineer and technical staff in other states are also facing similar problems, he added.

All the power utilities across the country must prepare a disaster management plan in case of exigencies of generation, transmission, and distribution. PSEB Engineers Association has written letters to the PSPCL / PSTCL management, suggesting various measures to safeguard the interest of corporations and the health of the employees.