PSEB engineers flay officials’ suspension
Tribune News Service

Patiala, February 15
In protest against the suspension of Punjab State Electricity Board (PSEB) officials for their alleged involvement in power theft at an industrial unit in Rajpura recently, board engineers have raised a banner of revolt against the management and are contemplating an agitation.

Accusing the board management of deliberately targeting the officers, PSEB Engineers Association president and general secretary HS Bedi and Bhupinder Singh, respectively, alleged: “To shield the real culprits and gain publicity, the board is making innocent officials and employees as scapegoats.”

They added that rather than victimising the officials, the board management should lay stress on taking corrective measures to deal with the menace of power theft.

The PSEB had suspended its two senior executive engineers, one SDO and one JE a few days ago for their alleged involvement in power theft at RK Welds Limited, Rajpura. Subsequently, on February 13, PSEB chairman HS Brar had warned the board staff that strict action would be initiated against anyone who found facilitating power thieves.

After convening a meeting in this regard today, which was attended by 200 engineers posted at the PSEB Head Office and the Patiala region, association leaders condemned the management for taking action against the officials in a “whimsical” manner.

The leaders alleged that power theft at the industrial unit in Rajpura was being carried out by the owner in a very sophisticated manner and only a technical team of investigators could unearth the wrong doing.

They claimed that the report of a two member committee comprising Chief Engineer/Enforcement and Chief Engineer/Operation in this ragard had not indicted the officials against whom action had been initiated. “Just to target some selected officials, the board chairman obtained another report from the Vigilance Wing of the PSEB and issued suspension orders. The Vigilance Wing is not the competent authority to investigate cases of such nature,” the association president added.