Engineers body wants better scales
To pressurize government for recruitment
Tribune News Service

Panipat, November 2
The All-India Power Engineers Federation has decided to seek better pay scales for engineers joining government jobs at the SDO level.

Padamjit Singh, chairman, All-India Power Engineers Federation, who presided over the first general body meeting of Haryana Power Engineers Association held here today, said a lot of efforts were needed for correction of pay scales. He said the association should also step up their campaign to mount pressure on the state government to fill the posts of engineers lying vacant in the power utilities of the state.

There was a shortage of over 70 per cent of engineers at SDO level, which was putting extra burden on rest of the staff. Due to the shortage, it had become a routine for management to go for consultants and contractors for all kinds of jobs rather making regular appointments, which could improve working of the power utilities, he said.

Meanwhile, during the general body meeting of the association, which was attended by over 200 field engineers from the state, RS Dahiya and SS Yadav were elected president and general secretary, respectively, of the body.

The general body unanimously elected 17 members of the new executive committee drawn from all four power utilities of the state.

Haryana Power Engineers Association was formed after merging various engineers bodies working in the four power utilities of the state.

RL Chhokar, president of erstwhile HSEB Engineers Association, congratulated the Haryana power engineers for forming the single body of all the engineers and said this would go a long way in solving the day-to-day problems being faced by the engineers. He said it was after a gap of 15 years that engineers had joined hands to form the association and in the absence of any forum their viewpoints were not heard by the authorities or by the government.

SK Garg, general secretary of the association, said the state power sector was set for a major expansion in generation capacity, transmission and distribution networks in the next five years. The representatives from different zones said the pay scales were much lower than expected. A number of speakers said that the management was setting unrealistic targets and the quality control was the resultant causality.

Meanwhile, RL Chhoker was made patron of the association for his services rendered to the erstwhile HSEB engineers association. The main office-bearers of the association include VK Katyal, senior vice-president, Daljit Singh, vice-president, and Kabul Singh, finance secretary.

The executive members who were elected included PK Verma, VK Raghav, KK Malik, Ranbir Deswal, SS Malik, VS Sharma, Amit Maan, AK Bhanot and RL Kamboj.