HPSEB Unbundling
Power men form front
Tribune News Service

Shimla, January 18
The engineers and employees of the state electricity board have formed a joint front to tackle the issue of unbundling of the board that had been hanging fire ever since its transmission utility licence expired.

The front will be led by a nine-member team, comprising representatives from various constituent employees’ bodies. Suneel Grover will be the convener of the front that has called a meeting of representative unions on February 2 to decide the future course of action.

It had resented the reported move of the government to create a separate state transmission utility. It alleged it was a move of the bureaucracy to grab more posts of directors after the unbundling of the board. It urged Chief Minister PK Dhumal to restrain bureaucracy from going ahead with such moves to avoid unnecessary administrative expenditure on new corporations.

The front reiterated that unbundling was not required in the state because of the difficult topography and demographic conditions. If there was any compulsion that trading activity could not be undertaken along with transmission, the same could be kept separate and given to a subsidiary under the control and command of the board.