Power JEs resent stalled promotions
Attar Singh
Tribune News Service

Patiala, March 18
There is resentment among junior engineers (JEs) of the Punjab State Electricity Board for their promotions have been held up for a long time.

Sources in the Council of Junior Engineers of the PSEB said no meeting of the departmental promotion committee had been held to form a panel from among additional assistant engineers (JE-1) to assistant engineers and JEs (civil) to assistant engineers.

Swarn Lal, president of the council, said here today that the promotion process in case of engineering officers was slower compared to administrative officers and junior engineers. More than 30 posts of assistant engineer (AE) had already become due in the promotion share of JEs till last month while senior engineers were being promoted up to the level of chief engineer immediately.

Devinder Singh, general secretary of the council, said JEs were being harassed due to a hire-and-fire policy being adopted by the board regarding the release of tubewell connections and allocation of material.

Swaran said there was no uniformity in the allocation of material due to which various works were held up and material could not be properly accounted for. Problems facing meter works might hit the power supply system in summers.

More than 1,000 posts of JE were lying vacant in the Operation Department. The field authorities had started violating the board instructions for giving charge of JEs to assistant JEs. He said no date for discussion on important pending demands had been fixed yet by the management. The same was earlier postponed on two occasions.

The council has urged the management to immediately finalise the promotion process for junior engineers and also to settle their long-pending demands, failing which the JEs would be compelled to resort to protests.

Meanwhile, the council today announced an action plan to hold protests and dharnas.