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.
Highly placed sources told FE that the Punjab government has given its nod to the PSEB for the appointment of more than 225 electrical engineers and 110 training engineers. The PSEB is also looking for 125 sub-station attendants and a number of people for other departments. The process of recruitment has begun and appointments are likely to take place next month.
This is not for the first time that appointments in PSEB have raised eyebrows. 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.
HS Bedi, president of the PSEB Engineers Association, told FE besides, taking up the issue of re-employment, the engineers have also 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.?
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.