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Corporation chiefs as ad-hocs may hamper Punjab’s power supply this summer, says engineers’ association
With the chairperson and director of Power Corporations having completed their tenure and working on temporary basis, PSEB Engineers’ Association has cautioned the Punjab Government regarding the prevailing ad-hoc and non-serious attitude towards state’s power sector.
With the chairperson and director of Power Corporations having completed their tenure and working on temporary basis, PSEB Engineers’ Association has cautioned the Punjab Government regarding the prevailing ad-hoc and non-serious attitude towards state’s power sector.
The government is not able to fill important posts of CMD/Directors in PSPCL/ PSTCL. The attitude is non-serious to a level that other important posts relating to the power sector like Member PSERC and Chief Electrical Inspector (CEI) are also lying vacant and there is no engineer in PSERC said Jasvir Singh Dhiman, President PSEB Engineers Association (PSEBEA).
PSEBEA is amongst the power employees union. The association further criticised the adhoc appointments/ extensions being given on the important and critical posts of CMD PSPCL, Directors in PSPCL/ PSTCL.
“The height of this adhocism in Power department was witnessed Tuesday, when the post of Director Technical has been left vacant without any new appointment even though the selection process has remained pending for the last 3 months,” he said.
Dhiman stated that PSTCL looks after purely technical works related to transmission systems and has very stringent targets to enhance the transmission capacity of the state, and is now without any decision making director for technical matters.
Dhiman informed that association has written a letter way back in October 2022, warning the government that terms of current management is coming to an end and concrete efforts should be made on urgent basis to fill these important posts of the power sector.
He said that the power sector requires long term planning to ensure reliable and quality power supply. Instead of offering regular tenures, the power department has started granting make-shift extensions to the posts of CMD, Directors in PSPCL/ PSTCL without fixed tenure. The posts of Directors HR have been vacant in PSPCL for the last 12 years. Even after 13 years of bifurcation of PSEB under so called reforms for improving efficiency and professionalism, PSTCL is yet to get a full time CMD, he rued.
He warned that if these posts are kept vacant the upcoming paddy season will be challenging for the power sector and other consumers will face power interruptions.
