Back franchisee system, Cong urges power staff
Manish Sirhindi
Tribune News Service

Panipat, January 19
The HPCC has urged power engineers and workers of the state power utilities to support the franchisee system being introduced by the government at Gurgaon and Panipat on an experimental basis. HPCC spokesman Ved Prakash Vidrohi said the engineers, instead of opposing the move, should concentrate on bringing down line losses in other districts of the state to validate their point.

He said it would be wrong to perceive the franchisee system as privatisation of the power utilities as this was not the case. Allaying the apprehensions expressed by employees of the power utilities that the new system might create a job crisis for them, Vidrohi said in 1998 when the government had gone ahead with the trifurcation of the power board, many had raised similar issues. However, the reforms neither lead to privatisation of the power utilities nor any jobs were terminated.

He said the sole purpose of introducing the franchisee system was to bring more efficiency in the working of the power utilities and to bring down theft of power which was causing considerable losses to the utilities.

He claimed that the employees had been misled by some vested interests.