Chennai: “The Tamil Nadu Electricity Board should abandon the decision to hand over accounting work to private parties. The vacant posts should be filled immediately with those who have passed the internal examination,” said VCK leader Thirumavalavan.
In the statement he issued on this, he said, “With around 3.52 crore electricity consumers in Tamil Nadu, there are still many places where power supply is being disrupted, causing hardship to the public. This creates a situation that tarnishes the government’s image. Complaints such as rising power demand, inability to provide electricity consistently to consumers, delays in meter reading, irregularities in billing, and increases in electricity charges have also increased in recent times.
The staffing problems in the Tamil Nadu Generation and Distribution Corporation are the main reason for this crisis situation. In Chennai and various other places, feeders trip, and because there are no operators at the substations, power outages occur, creating a blackout-like situation. Complaints from electricity consumers about billing errors, calculation mistakes, and tariff hikes are being raised in large numbers. The shortage of billing staff to carry out meter readings is the reason for this.
According to the Electricity Department white paper released after the T.V.K. government took office, it was stated that 53,575 posts were vacant and that 20,449 of those vacant posts would be filled. The white paper further stated that, among these, the largest number would be 12,500 multi-purpose field assistants, who can also handle accounting work, followed by 945 electrical technical assistants.
Instead of recruiting people for the role of meter readers, it has been decided that the responsibility of carrying out meter reading work will be entrusted to private companies on a contract basis; moreover, through a limited tender process in which only a restricted number of parties can participate, and at the electricity division level, executive engineers themselves will issue the contract invitation and assign it for a period of 6 months from October. This move by the government will amount to an administrative effort to fully privatize subsidiary entities such as the electricity department. Therefore, the decision to hand over meter reading work to the private sector should be withdrawn.
The reason for disruptions in power supply is that there are not enough “operators” to fix them when a substation “feeder trip” occurs. The responsibility for rectifying this lies with the technical assistant at the substation operator level and the second-level junior engineers. When they are not on duty, repair work is carried out by field staff who do not have sufficient skill or training for such incidents, so the work is done inefficiently and with delays.
At present, around 1,800 operator positions are vacant, and 250 second-grade junior engineers are waiting for promotion. Approval has been granted for new posts for 50% of the newly to be established substations. Taking all of this into account, the number of vacant positions will rise to around 2,500. The white paper states that 945 vacancies will be filled within this year.
For this task, there are about 600 remaining people on the selection list waiting for the internal interview for the post of Technical Assistant—those who have received sufficient training and full competence to undertake this work, have studied diploma through higher secondary education, and have been working in the Electricity Board for many years in other lower-level positions.
By first filling these 945 vacancies with them, the related pending work will be carried out immediately. The government should recognize and appoint them, with the confidence that they will handle the current practical difficulties very easily and with strong administrative capability, thanks to the work experience they have gained.
He has stated, “We urge the Tamil Nadu government to first appoint all those who have passed the internal selection and are waiting for appointment in the 945 operator posts that the Tamil Nadu government has decided to fill in the electricity department.”