Staff crunch, poor infra lead to power crisis in Palampur

Rural areas worst-affected | No recruitment in dept in past 10 years

Ravinder Sood

Palampur, February 4

A shortage of field staff and poor infrastructure have adversely affected power supply in Palampur town and its satellite areas. Rural areas are the worst-affected, as there is no one to address public complaints after 5 pm. Power failure in Palampur and its adjoining areas is routine and no day goes when there is no power shutdown.

In the past five years, Palampur has witnessed vast urbanisation — over 10,000 new houses have come up — but the power supply infrastructure has remained the same as it was 10 years ago. In the absence of an independent power substation, the town and its adjoining areas are dependent on Maranda feeders, which is already overburdened, leading a supply crisis.

Several plans were made to set up a separate power substation for Palampur but due to lack political willpower and red-tape nothing had materialised till date, resulting in the total collapse of the supply system.

Information gathered by The Tribune revealed that over 60 per cent posts of field staff such as linesmen, supervisors, electricians, foremen and other technical employees were lying vacant for the past five years; most of the field staff retired during this period but no new recruitment had been made.

A senior official of the Himachal Pradesh State Electricity Board Ltd said the number of domestic and commercial consumers had increased manifold and the existing power supply system needed major augmentation for regular power supply. He added that the existing system was outdated.

He said that the HPSEBL was facing a manpower crisis. There was a complete ban on new appointments in the board for the past 10 years. He added that the existing staff was under a lot of pressure, as they had to face public anger every day. This had also led to several accidents and cases of electrocution in recent days

“Though the authorities concerned have allowed hiring of labourers on contract, the conditions of appointments were very stringent, therefore no one was coming forward for the job,” he said.

Caption:- Power transmission lines in a bad shape. Tribune photo