STATE TIMES NEWS
JAMMU: Jammu and Kashmir Electrical Engineering Graduates Association (JKEEGA), under the leadership of Er. Sachin Tickoo, President, and Er. Pirzada Hidayatullah, General Secretary, on Friday conducted multiple rounds of talks with the Administration, including the Chief Secretary and Principal Secretary of the Power Development Department (PDD).
These discussions aimed to address concerns regarding the suspension of 12 Engineers from the Power Development department who were on deputation to JPDCL/KPDCL.
The association emphasized the need for a fair and just evaluation process for engineers, taking into account realistic parameters such as billing efficiency, collection efficiency, and overall reduction of AT&C losses.
During the talks, it was highlighted that the suspensions of the engineers were based on unrealistic grounds and that they were being made scapegoats for underlying issues such as poor infrastructure, inadequate staffing, non-metering, partial ABC cabling, and the poor performance of central PSU’s in implementing centrally sponsored schemes. The association stressed the importance of addressing these fundamental issues to ensure true accountability.
Following deliberations, the management agreed to issue charge sheets to the suspended engineers immediately and to evaluate the suspension orders based on the reasoned replies provided by the engineers. Additionally, both parties agreed to establish a Technical Committee to assess and set reasonable benchmarks for billing efficiency, collection efficiency, and AT&C losses with respect to 11KV feeders.
The improvement efforts made in achieving these benchmarks would serve as a basis for justifying the performance of engineers in their respective areas.
In response to these positive developments, the JKEEGA Guidance Council decided to call off the sit-in protest scheduled for March 30th. Instead, they opted to organize Guidance Meetings in both Jammu and Kashmir to review progress. The association expressed hope that the administration would review the suspensions in a time-bound manner as agreed upon in the meeting.
Furthermore, they emphasized that future assessments of engineer performance would be based on benchmarks established by the Technical Committee on loss reduction, billing efficiency, and other relevant parameters.