Haryana power engineers threaten stir after I-Day

CHANDIGARH :
HT Correspondent
CHANDIGARH : Haryana power engineers have threatened to launch a peaceful agitation after August 15 in case their demands for removal of pay anomalies and restructuring of power utilities are not met.
In separate letters to chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda and power minister Capt Ajay Singh Yadav, All India Power Engineers Federation (AIPEF) secretary general Shailendra Dubey wrote on Friday that the state power engineers were feeling “highly“ agitated and their long-pending demands should be met without further delay to avoid confrontation.

AIPEF said assistant engineers(AE) in the power utilities were the lowest paid across the country and were also getting much less than AEs in the state government.

“The AEs in power sector are getting basic pay of Rs 12,090 with grade pay Rs 5400 as compared to Haryana's AEs who get Rs 14880 with grade pay Rs 5400. Earlier, the AEs in the power utilities were getting 6% higher salary than their counterparts in the state government due to arduous nature of their duties,“ it said.

The engineers' body has demanded restructuring of the power utilities stating that when Haryana State Electricity Board was bifurcated into four corporations in 1998 -99, it was decided to restructure the utilities after every five years.

However, there had been no restructuring in the past 12 years in spite of load growth, retirement of employees and increase in the number of substations and transmission and distributions lines, the letter read.

Another contentious issue is the employment of directors beyond the age of superannuation.

“The directors should retire at the age of 58 years with no further extension so that genuine and dedicated power engineers get their chance of promotion,“ Dubey wrote.
Similarly, AIPEF has demanded revival of the post of engineer-in-chief in the power companies.

Haryana has four power coporations Haryana Power Generation Corporation Limited, Haryana Vidyut Prasaran Nigam, Uttar Haryana Bijli Vitran Nigam and Dakshin Haryana Bijli Vitran Nigam for generation, transmission and distribution of electricity in the state.