Haryana power engineers harassed and demoralized-Padamjit Singh
Haryana power engineers are feeling harassed as senior engineers are being suspended, their genuine demands are pending for years, and they are accused of things that they have not done.
CJ: V K Gupta

Thu, May 05, 2011

ALL INDIA Power Engineers Federation (AIPEF) has alleged that power engineers in Haryana are being harassed and demoralized by bureaucrats as power utility is suspending senior engineers without giving them a chance to defend themselves.

Padamjit Singh, Chairman AIPEF, said that the management of power utility has suspended S.S. Yadav, Chief Engineer Operations; Delhi, who is amongst the most efficient working chief engineers, committed no irregularity while sanctioning load to a colonizer at Faridabad. The suspension has sent shock waves amongst power engineers of Haryana.

Padamjit added that for releasing the load above 75 MVA the colonizer has to build his own 220KV Sub Station but it is unfortunate that in Gurgaon district some builders such as DLF, Ansal & Unitech, with right political connections, are using the load of more than 100 MVAs and none of the builders have constructed their own 220 KV Sub Stations.

Many other builders have released load more than 15 MVA for which 66 KV Sub Station is required but no Sub Station has been constructed. In Gurgaon, where this practice is going on for years no one even raised an eyebrow.

A senior Haryana power engineer said, on condition of anonymity, that engineers are being harassed and demoralized by the bureaucrats. They are being involved in corruption cases on manipulated basis and FIR is being lodged.

Even at their retirement stages they are being given major penalty and being demoted two ranks below a day before retirement.

Moreover, the appellant authority of Power Engineers is Chairman of the power utilities and that post is lying vacant for more than one year. Thus engineer’s genuine appeal is not being considered by the management.

The management is not paying heed to any genuine demand of engineers. Decades have passed, the utilities are not being restructured, and consumers power load are increasing by 14 per cent every year.

They have to work with only present existing 30 per cent staff. The posts of Engineer-in-Chief have been abolished. Even Assistant Engineers in Haryana are being paid Rs. 12090 basic pay, which is lowest in power utility companies of the country.

On the financial side, the power utilities are at present under debt of Rs. 15000 crore with loss of Rs. 8000 crore, and monthly cash deficit is Rs. 550 crore

In such circumstances, the management of power utility is forcing the Haryana Power Engineers to go on agitation path, said Padamjit .