PSEBEA request to notify PSEB as a single company on the lines of KSEB
Wednesday, 25 February 2009
PSEBEA once again took a strong stand to reform PSEB in the lines of KSEB by retaining it as a single company. But in Kerala their own counterpart, KSEBEA is actively campaigning against reforms with support from Congress unions
HS Bedi, president of the PSEB Engineers Association, told FE that the engineers Association have requested the Punjab government to notify the PSEB as a single company on the lines of Kerala State Electricity Board. He said, “As per the Electricity Act 2003, state electricity boards can be converted into a company, which would both be a distribution licensee and a state transmission utility (STU), owning generation assets. The only rider in the Act is that an STU cannot trade in power; so the trading function has to be vested in a different company.”

Several retired chief engineers and senior officers have been re-employed by the PSEB as advisers. The PSEB Engineers Association had written to the state government and the chairman of the PSEB that such re-employment of retired engineers would demoralise the ranks.

Considering the upcoming Parliamentary elections, the Punjab government has sought the Union power ministry’s extension for the process of unbundling of the Board for the record tenth time since 2003 when Electricity Act was enacted.

While the economic slowdown has led to retrenchments in many sectors, the fund-starved Punjab State Electricity Board (PSEB) is in the process of appointing a large number of engineers in different departments.PSEB has published 125 posts of Assistant Engineer (On Training), 225 posts of Junior Engineer and 125 posts of Substation Attendant.As far as AE(OT) are concerned there are 80 vacancies of Electrical Engineers, 15 each of ECE and Computer Science and 10 of Civil Engineers.