Bhubaneswar, May 22 -- Thousands of contractual electricity workers continued their agitation in Odisha on Thursday. They demanded the reinstatement of retrenched employees and implementation of a separate Odisha outsourcing model, as the All Odisha Electricity Workers Federation entered the fifth day of its protest.

The federation said more than 10,000 contractual workers employed across the four power distribution companies operated by Tata Power have joined the movement. Despite intense heat and humid conditions prevailing across the state, over 5,000 workers remained on dharna in support of the six-point charter of demands.

The protesting workers alleged that several employees were removed from service and called for their immediate...