Punjab Newsline
Punjab govt appoints coordination committee to address Powercom engineers grievances

Vinod Kumar Gupta
Sunday, 08 August 2010
CHANDIGARH: Punjab Chief Minister has appointed a high powered 5 member coordination committee under Chief Secretary to resolve all the pending pay revision issue and tripartite agreement within one month.
PSEB Engineers Association (PSEBEA) led by President. H.S. Bedi Sunday met Parkash Singh Badal, CM Punjab today at Chandigarh to discuss the various pending issues concerning the engineers and the Power sector in Punjab.

Chief Secretary, Principal Secretary Finance, Secretary Power, Principal Secretary to CM and CMD of POWERCOM and TRASNCO including Director Administration /Powercom were also present in the meeting.

PSEBEA pointed out that the pending pay revision issues of the engineers and signing of the tripartite agreement has not been resolved even after more than 3 months as promised during the restructuring of the erstwhile PSEB.
Association again highlighted the need to build 2640 MW Gidderbaha thermal project under the State sector since all the other three thermal projects have been awarded to private players. Power Finance Corporation has agreed for financing the project, without requiring any guarantee from state.

Bhupinder Singh General secretary explained that state is generating 50% of its present power demand and with the commissioning of all the thermal projects in the private sector, states share would go down to around 20%, seriously affecting its ability to regulate the sector optimally in the interest of the state. Chief Minister assured that the Govt. shall take a suitable decision on their demand after the receipt of report.
Association also mentioned that with the creation of two companies, some additional charges have to be created when common facilities are split between two companies. CM said that the matter may be referred to the high powered committee.

CM, Punjab desired that the consumer service and service delivery should improve under the new set up.