Power employees union accuses Torrent of using unfair means
Abhinav Malhotra, TNN, 21 January 2010
KANPUR: Just before the proposed takeover of Kesco by the Torrent Power Limited on January 26, members of the 'Vidyut Karamchari Sayukt Sangharsh Samiti' (VKSSS) have accused the private player of poaching the Kesco employees. The Torrent management has not only hired a large number of temporary workers of Kesco, but is also using them to get the inside information and even sabotage the functioning of the outgoing distribution company, the samiti members have alleged. Torrent officials, however, have denied all such accusations.

According to VKSS spokesperson Vijay Tripathi, The Torrent management has resorted to unfair practice by hiring the ground staff of Kesco and using them to its own benefit till the final takeover takes place on Janaury 26. These staffers perform important duties like meter reading and feeding details of consumers.

Though these workers have already been given appointment letters by the Torrent, till Janaury 26 technically they are with the Kesco, says Tripathi, adding "these employees are not only being used to extract confidential information but also sabotage the present working of Kesco." Since, Torrent has offered much higher salary and emoluments to them, they are too willing to obey, he alleges.

Pussey Lal, another senior official of the Sangharsh Samiti, said: "These 'future' employees of Torrent are indulging into activities like slowing down the Internet servers, remaining absent from the vital jobs assigned, not sending bills to the consumers," adding "because of this, the revenue collection in the past two days has been very low."

This is a deliberate effort to disturb our revenue collection, so that on papers it could be proved that Kesco is slow in terms of revenue collection and our poor performance will make a solid ground for the takeover, he further explained.

It is worth mentioning here that since the day the Torrent Power Limited came into picture, the Kesco as a team has been making endeavours to raise the revenue collection so that the differences that may arise in the collection can itself say a success story of Kesco's good work. But that hasn't impressed the government.

Meanwhile, senior Torrent official, AN Singh outrightly rejected the charges levelled by the Sangharsh Samiti and instead added, "There is no need for us to enter into activities like spying etc as relevant information required was sought through official channel. This is a false propaganda and we are not the least concerned with it."