Siraha, October 10:

Accusing the customers of Siraha municipality-4 Ramaulgaun of manhandling some of the employees and misbehaving with them last night, workers of the Siraha branch office of the Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA) went on a strike today.

The Ramaulgaun residents were protesting the irratic power supply in the area, complaining that frequent power outages had occurred in the area even during the Ramadan festival.

Though the NEA was informed about power outages, the it did not pay any attention to solve the problem, they said.

Chief of the NEA Siraha, Sanjay Gupta, accused the locals, who arrived at the office last night, misbehaved with the employees and switched on the power supply system on their own. Their act, when the employees were conducting repair works at other places, put the employees at risk, he said.

Demanding security, the technicians of the office went on strike, he said. Gupta said power supply was cut off turn by turn in different areas to minimise any problem in the transformer during peak hour. According to him, the locals also vandalised an office vehicle.