Power board top heavy but 11,500 posts of field staff vacant: Minister
Minister for Town and Country Planning Rajesh Dharmani today said that 11,500 posts were vacant in “top-heavy” Himachal Pradesh State Electricity Board Limited (HPSEBL). He blamed the past policies for the huge number of vacancies and the imbalance in the workforce in the board.
Dharmani said that surplus people at the top had resulted in a large number of vacancies in field offices. “Surplus officers affected the staff strength in the field offices. To cut down costs, the strength of the field staff was reduced. The cut was applied where the manpower was needed the most. And to sustain this system, maintenance gangs were roped in and several services were outsourced,” he added. Dharmani heads the Cabinet Sub-Committee formed to reform the working of the electricity board. “We need to take some concrete steps to strengthen our field offices and rationalise our top offices,” he asserted.
As part of the rationalisation process, the board had recently abolished 51 posts of engineer in several offices and shifted the incumbent officers to other offices. “To improve the financial condition of the BSNL, the Central Government had brought a VRS scheme, which was more or less compulsory. We have not laid them off but just transferred them from one office to another,” the minister added.
Dharmani said that the board could supply power at lower rates than the prevailing ones if steps were taken to reduce administrative cost, cut losses and upgrade the system. “The board procures electricity at the cheapest rates in the whole country but the supply cost is not competitive. It’s still higher than in a few other states. We can supply power at lower rates to the industry, commercial institutes and domestic consumers. Cheaper power will attract investment and industries to the state,” he added.
Meanwhile, the Joint Front comprising the employees of the board also met the minister and discussed their issues with him. It urged the minister to restore the abolished 51 posts of engineer, review the decision to remove 81 outsourced drivers and restore the Old Pension Scheme.
