E-Paper
Concern over staff shortage in power sector
FORMER PRESIDENT and patron of the State Electricity Council Junior Engineers Organisation Suresh Chandra Singh said that the government policy on the power sector was not clear and there was no early sign of relief from the poor power scenario.
FORMER PRESIDENT and patron of the State Electricity Council Junior Engineers Organisation Suresh Chandra Singh said that the government policy on the power sector was not clear and there was no early sign of relief from the poor power scenario.
He said dearth of staff had aggravated the problem in distribution of power and junior engineers had decided to launch a movement against the government from October 4.
Talking to mediapersons, Singh alleged that political intervention in the power sector had also intensified the problem. Quoting the instance of Bankaura village under Mundera police station of Basti district, he said musclemen of some political leaders people linked under-construction 11 KVA line to IT lines of 220 and 440 volts, resulting in the death of two employees and injuries to 18 others.
He said FIRs had been lodged against junior engineers (JE) but no one was blaming the political leaders.
Singh said the organisation had launched a mobilisation drive to generate opinion in favour of the satyagarh and a programme had been organised at Gorakhpur which was attendedf by the JEs from Gorakhpur and Basti divisions.
Responding to a question, he said that Rajiv Gandhi Rural Electrification Scheme couldn’t fulfill its objective without increasing the strength of staff. He said there were 143 power sub-stations and 212 JE posts were sanctioned in the district. However, only 150 JEs were working in the department. He further said that there was shortage of 181 technical staff in the division.
More manpower would be required in view of the increasing workload under Rajiv Gandhi Rural Electrification Work.
Singh said that the JEs could go on mass casual leave from October 4 to 6 to mount pressure on the State government to address their demands.
He further said that from October 6 the JEs could go on strike for indefinite period. He also demanded to provide new pay scale to the JEs and along with advance allowance of Rs 50000 for purchasing vehicles.
