BBMB headless in rainy season; officer sitting in Delhi may proven disastrous-Ladhar
Kanwar Inder Singh/ royalpatiala.in/ Chandigarh
“In the month of July when North India is going through Monsoon season, the Central Govt has shown utter negligence towards appointment of Chairman of Bhakra Beas Management Board BBMB. Instead of appointing a regular Chairman of this prestigious organization, a joint Secretary level officer Tanmay Kumar (IAS), Ministry of Power has been given the additional charge, of this crucial post. Even the newly appointed Chairman of BBMB assumed the charge at Delhi itself, instead it coming to board’s head office at Chandigarh” said SR Ladhar, IAS (retd.)
Ladhar further informed that “it happened due to the simple reason GOI don’t want to appoint Gulab Singh Narwal member irrigation in BBMB, a most senior and competent, not only in BBMB but in the entire India as on today, as he is a Scheduled Caste officer”
Ladhar further said that” If something wrong happens or flood like situation occurs in Punjab, who will take the decisions to control the same, as the newly appointed chairman will sit in Delhi, as he is looking after Transmission Sector, PGCIL, POSOCO (Power System Operation Corporation Limited) and Grid Integration of Renewable Energy amongst other assignments, instead at organization head office in Chandigarh. As a generalist officer (Jt Secy. ) cannot play the role of an Engineer as Chief Secretary cannot be a Doctor to treat Covid-19. Hope the Central Govt wakes up before it is too late. PAGAAM had earlier also highlighted this issue, at government level”.
BBMB is headed by a Whole Time Chairman and two Whole Time Members i.e. Member (Irrigation) and Member (Power) who head the Irrigation and Power Wings of BBMB respectively. Member Irrigation is represented by a Haryana cadre and Member Power is represented by a Punjab cadre officer.
Gulab Singh Narwal, Member Irrigation in Bhakra Beas Management Board has joined the organisation on 27th March 2019. Prior to this, he was posted as Chief Engineer, BSL Project BBMB Sunder Nagar HP. He joined Irrigation Department Haryana in 1998 as AEE Class-1. He was promoted as Chief Engineer in the year 2012 (deemed date). He did diploma in Production Engineering from Govt. Polytechnic Jhajjar Haryana, BE (Civil), BE (Mechanical), M.Tech. (IIT Delhi), LLB, LLM, MBA (Operations Management), M.Phil (Management), M.Sc. (Environment), M.Sc. (Computer Science), MCA, MA (Public Administration), MA (History) and Ph.D (Botany). He has 21 years’ experience of planning, design and construction in Irrigation, Water Resources and hydro power projects.
Er. Harminder Singh Chugh, Member Power, joined as Chief Engineer/System Operation, BBMB, Chandigarh on 05-07-2018 from PSPCL, Patiala. He is B.Sc. Engg.(Mechanical) from RECK (Presently known as NIT Kurukshetra) in the year 1984 and did post graduate diploma in Marketing Management from “IGNOU” University. Joined PSEB (now PSPCL) in the year 1985.Having more than 33 years of service experience in PSPCL in various capacities comprising all aspects of Generation, Distribution & Transmission organization. Out of 33 years of service in PSPCL & in BBMB till date, about 25 years of experience is in Generation organization.
In 1988 Bhakra Beas Management Board (BBMB) chairman was gunned down by militants holding him responsible for floods in Punjab.
As per the Indus Water Treaty, 1960 signed between India and Pakistan, the waters of three eastern rivers namely the Sutlej, the Beas and the Ravi were allotted to India for exclusive use. Bhakra Management Board was renamed as Bhakra Beas Management Board (BBMB) 15th May 1976. Since then, the Bhakra Beas Management Board is dedicated to the service of nation and is engaged in regulation of the supply of Water & Power from Bhakra Nangal and Beas Projects to the states of Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan, Himachal Pardesh, Delhi and Chandigarh.
