Power employees protest, say government weakening board

The Himachal Pradesh State Electricity Board (HPSEBL) employees and pensioners held protests today outside the electricity office across the state, demanding withdrawal of the decision to abolish 51 posts of engineers and ouster of 81 drivers employed on an outsource basis. Their other major demands include the restoration of Old Pension Scheme in the board, no tampering with the current structure of the board, and hearing out the board employees before implementing the measures suggested by the Cabinet sub-committee. The government has formed the committee for reforms in the board.

Their demands

• Withdrawal of the decision to abolish 51 posts of engineer and ouster of 81 drivers employed on outsource basis
• Restoration of Old Pension Scheme
• Hearing out the board employees before implementing the measures suggested by the Cabinet sub-committee
• Have deferred their agitation by 15 days

“The protest was held at 60 different places in the state,” said HL Verma, secretary of the Joint Front of the HPSEBL employees and engineers.

Going back on their plan to launch a big agitation ahead of Diwali in case the government did not invite them for a dialogue, the power employees have deferred their agitation by 15 days. “If the government doesn’t resolve our issues in this period, our agitation will move towards ‘tools down, pen down’ stage,” said Lokesh Thakur, president of the Joint Front.

While speaking to the media after the protest, Verma said it appeared the government was deliberately trying to weaken the structure of the board and gradually push it into private hands. “If the board is further unbundled, it will affect not only the service conditions of the employees and pensioners but also the consumers will be affected as they will have to pay higher tariff,” he said.

The protesters further said that the board had endured a lot of damage in the absence of a regular Managing Director for over a year until a few month back. “Not only the OPS was not restored in the board, the financial condition of the board also deteriorated during this period. The board suffered so many losses that it slipped to the 50th rank among the Discoms in the country,” said Verma.