New Power Utilities
Interim panel shows haste in regularising staff’s services
Jangveer Singh
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, May 25
The interim management committee of the new power utilities --- Powercom and Transco-- has opened the floodgates for the regularisation of the services of contractual staff by taking such action in the case of 84 employees. The move has predictably resulted in protests from those left out and now the management committee is considering regularising the services of around 60 contractual sportsmen also.

According to sources the services of 77 substation attendants who have been working on a contract basis for some time have been regularised as part of an agreement with the joint employees’ forum of the erstwhile Punjab State Electricity Board before the restructuring of the board. This was also done to end litigation as these employees had gone to court challenging the fresh recruitment of substation attendants.

However, there are reservations that the interim committee has moved inordinately quickly to regularise the services of seven other employees. A special effort was made to regularise the services of these employees by moving a memorandum and the process has been completed just days before the end of the tenure of the interim committee. The new electricity utilities are expected to have separate chief managing directors for both Powercom and Transcom from June 1 onwards. The interim committee was formed as a stopgap arrangement only.

The committee had regularised the services of three employees who have been working in the IT section for more than two and a half years on a contractual basis. It has also regularised the services of three law officers and one doctor. While interim committee chairman Anurag Aggarwal maintains that this is in order as proper norms were followed while recruiting these employees on a contractual basis, there is the question of both hurry and why more deserving candidates were not given a chance of competing for these posts.

Moreover, while moving a memorandum and passing the same, the committee has left itself open as to why it did not consider the regularisation of the services of sportsmen who have also put in years in contractual service. Sportsmen have protested to the interim committee as well as to Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal saying they should also be considered for permanent absorption under similar rules.

Around 60 sportsmen work on a contractual basis in the state electricity utility. After protests, the interim committee chairman maintains that their case for permanent absorption is also being considered. Sportsmen, who have the requisite qualifications, want their services to be regularised as lower division clerks.