LUCKNOW: The UP Power employees on Thursday decided to withdraw their ongoing agitation following assurance from the state government to drop privatisation of power distribution in five cities, according to power employees federation.

“We have decided to withdraw the stir on a written assurance from the UPPCL that Integrated Service Provider tenders for privatisation of power distribution in five cities had been withdrawn,” said convenor of the federation Shailendra Dubey.

He claimed the deadlock was broken after a marathon round of talks extending over eight hours with top Uttar Pradesh Power Corporation Limited management in the presence of UP power minister Srikant Sharma.

The UPPCL manangement, however, was not available for comments on the issue and did not respond to calls.

Opposing the Uttar Pradesh government’s decision to privatise power distribution in Lucknow, Varanasi, Gorakhpur, Meerut and Moradabad, around 1 lakh employees and engineers from the power sector were on strike and boycotting work since March 27.