POWERCOM ENGINEERS ARE AGITATING OVER DELAY IN IMPLEMENTING PROMISES BY CM PARKASH SINGH BADAL

At the time when the PSEB was being restructured, the engineers fully cooperated with the state government POWERCOM E M P LOY E E S
Powercom engineers of Rupnagar Thermal Plant zone held a gate rally at the thermal plant to protest against alleged indifferent attitude of the management and dilly-dallying attitude of the state bureaucracy in fulfilling the promises made by chief minister Parkash Singh Badal to the engineers at the time of unbundling PSEB.
Powercom engineers criticised the government's decision to hand over all the newly identified thermal projects to private firms and the Gidderbaha plant to NTPC.

They said PSEB had an excellent track record of completing the construction of new thermal plants at Bhatinda, Rupnagar and Lehra-Mohabbat in record time and these plants have won many national-level awards for their performance.

Powercom had a full-fledged construction and design wings for thermal plants and these wings would become redundant in case government failed to use their services for setting up new plants and this loss will be irreparable.

They said at the time when PSEB was being restructured, the engineers fully cooperated with the state government to maintain continuity of supply in the state in the overall interest of the public.

They said the CM and chief secretary had repeatedly assured them that the service/working conditions including pensionary benefits, pay scales, allowances, provident fund etc would be protected and state government would stand as guarantor for which a legally enforceable tripartite agreement would be signed with employees and engineers immediately after unbundling.

The association had even supplied a draft of the tripartite agreement and after discussions, it was assured that with some minor changes, the draft will be signed.

However, these assurances were not fulfilled.

The engineers threaten to intensify the agitation in case issues are not resolved immediately.