VINOD KUMAR GUPTA
Saturday, 06 December 2008
Bedi reelected President of PSEB Engineers Association
PATIALA: The newly elected executive committee resolved that in case State Government and the Board management failed to address the issues concerning timely promotion of engineers and re-employment of retired engineers in a time bound manner, the engineers would resume its agitation which was suspended at the assurance of the management to sort these issues.
Earlier the newly elected executive body of the PSEB Engineers’ Association unanimously re-elected H. S. Bedi as President of the Association. S. C. Chabba was elected as Senior Vice President and Bhupinder Singh as General Secretary.
The other office beare of the association are K. S. Mann- Vice President, Rakesh Gupta Secretary / Finance, Gursharanjit Singh Organizing Secretary, Jaswant Zafar-Secretary / Publication, J. S. Suchu, Harjinder Singh, Anil Vij, . Sikandar Singh, H. C. Kamboj and . Sanjeev Sood as Joint Secretaries.
The executive committee condemned the direct involvement of State Government in posting and transfer of engineers delaying even the promotions of officers in this process. The executive also condemned the continuance of retired engineers as advisors in the board despite clear understanding given by Board that all these ex- cadre posts would be abolished. . It is regretted that Board is unable to post suitable engineers even against specialized posts and many officers reporting after availing leave have to wait for month or more to get their posting orders.
The executive committee also expressed anguish at lopsided material procurement policies of the Board. The release of new connections to even domestic consumers is held up for the last more than a year due to non availability of PVC and other minor items. Such situation promotes illegal use of electricity by the consumers. All the development works are held up due to non availability of material and some urgent works are being carried by dismantling material from other work available in the field. It is intriguing that although costly items like transformers, poles, conductor etc are available but petty items like black (PVC), angle iron etc. are not available.
The executive also expressed concern at the deteriorating financial health of the Board with accumulated losses crossing Rs.7000 Cr. and short term loans increasing by over 3 times in less than 2 years. The State Government is pushing the Board into serious debt trap which will prove suicidal for the economy of the State. Association demanded regular payment of advance subsidy as calculated by the Regulatory Commission from the state government.