The state government has succeeded in getting around 150 personnel from various public undertakings such as National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC), Power Grid and Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited (BHEL) to man MSEB's power stations. In addition to this, the government and MSEB are making all efforts to get additional power from NTPC, BSES, BEST, the Nuclear Power Corporation (NPC) and the Dabhol Power Company (DPC) to tide over the situation. The state government and the MSEB received a major boost on Monday with a decision by the senior engineers' union, the graduate engineers' union and the chemist association not to join the strike.

The members of these unions are deployed to man the power stations. Both the government and the MSEB feel that power generation stations will have no impact as these unions have decided to stay away from the strike.

However, 11 other unions such as the Maharashtra Viz Kamgar Mahasangh affiliated to the Bharatiya Majdoor Sangh (BMS), Intuc, the Workers Federation affiliated to Aituc, the Sharamik Congress and the Officers Association have decided to stick to their guns. Mantralaya sources told The Financial Express that the Essential Services Maintenance Act has been invoked to deal with the situation. The government's efforts to break the ice with the unions did not pay off as the latter vehemently opposed the unbundling and privatisation of power distribution to the detriment of the loss-making MSEB. Instead, these unions demanded that whatever corrective measures necessary, it should be done in the present set up.

These unions did not agree to hold talks on issues related to the implementation of employees' pension scheme and wage revision. Interestingly, the state energy minister Padmasinh Patil who had convened a meeting with the unions on late Sunday night, strongly stressed the need for unbundling power distribution and ultimately rejected the "adamant" stand taken by trade unions.