After CM’s appeal PSEB engineer’s association postpone their protest
Kanwar Inder Singh/ royalpatiala.in
After the assurance from the Punjab chief minister Capt Amrinder Singh, PSEB Engineers Association has decide to defer their agitation, for the time being. Engineers were protesting from the last many days, against the non-fulfilment of their demands.
Now, members of PSEB Engineers’ Association comprising all the officers of PSPCL/ PSTCL from the rank of Assistant Engineer to Engineer-in-Chief engineers won’t keep their mobiles off after 5.00 PM (2.00 pm-new office timings) and will join the official What’s app group, which they exited as a part of their protests and work to rule at thermal power plants , due to the non-resolution of their long pending genuine demands. Association assures that in the interest of the power sector, all engineers will continue to work day and night to ensure power supply to the consumers of the State despite the current limitations being imposed upon the engineers for no fault of their own.
PSEB Engineers association has further clarified that they will submit their official mobile phone sims on July 9,2021, as per their previous plan, if the govt, management fail to solve our pending demands.
After CM’s appeal PSEB engineer’s association postpone their protest. The association also wrote a letter to the CMD, PSPCL in response to his request to “Withdraw Protest Call in the Larger Public Interest of the Power Consumers of the State.
They pointed that the “PSEB Engineers’ Association has historically been a vanguard of the Punjab Power Sector and has always kept the operational and financial efficiency of the power sector on the top of its agenda, even the demand charter of Association reflects this long-standing philosophy. “
Showing their concern, the spokesperson said “Association is deeply concerned that the State power sector is being forced into a mess by ignoring the expert technical advice. May recall the various communications of the association regarding the technically unsound decisions to close State sector thermals and total reliance on the private IPPs for meeting with the power demand of the State. Despite strong protest by the Association, the recently renovated and healthy thermal plant at Bathinda was dismantled and two healthy units at Ropar thermal are still being kept non-operational. Both Bathinda and Ropar plants had plenty of useful life still remaining. Moreover, these working power stations were closed without making any alternate arrangements for power.”
“Engineers have been continuously cautioning the management and Punjab Government regarding the looming power crisis. It was brought to the notice that the non-technical decisions being taken by the management on the name of cost-saving, will dearly cost the consumers of Punjab in the form of unreliable power supply and higher electricity tariffs. Unfortunately, the fears of engineers have now come true and Punjab is now facing a severe power crisis during the peak summer season. Due to improper planning and on the name of cost-saving, neither sufficient manpower was hired, nor sufficient material has been procured and now the claims regarding adequate power availability stand exposed by the recurring power cuts being imposed on all categories of consumers” highlighted the engineers association.
They further added that “Neither State Generation has been added nor the installation of Inter Connecting Transformers has been expedited. It appears no serious efforts were made to arrange sufficient power even though it was anticipated that demand may touch 14500MW in this paddy. Now, field engineers are being gheraoed, manhandled and blamed for the chaos for which only management is responsible.”
July 2,2021
