Himachal Pradesh State Electricity Board Limited (HPSEBL) Employees Union held a convention at Mandi on Thursday to express its concern on deteriorating financial condition of the Electricity Board, the decreasing number of employees and the restoration of the old pension system.
The convention was attended by the board employees, pensioners and public representatives.
State president of the union K.D. Sharma, Board Pension Forum President E.A.S. Gupta and General Secretary Chandra Singh Mandal, Arun Kumar from Power Engineers Association and former President Kuldeep Kharwada and representatives of Panchayat and Mahila Mandal also attended the convention.
Speaking on the occasion, state president KD Sharma said, “The smart metering being done in the state with the participation of a private company is neither in the interest of consumers nor in the interest of the people of the state and would incur unnecessary expenditure leading to increase in the electricity tariff.”
He said, “This will also result in privatization of distribution of electricity in the hands of private parties affecting the strength of employees adversely, leading to retrenchment.”
General Secretary Heera Lal Verma said, “ The electricity board has decided to replace all 26 lakh electronic meters of the state with smart meters through a private company, which will cost about Rs 3100 crore and this money will be recovered from the electricity consumers through electricity bills.”
Verma said, “The electricity board is facing a serious financial crisis today due to which the financial benefits of the employees and pension is not being paid ; the situation has come to such a pass for the last one year, the employees have not been paid the leave earned on retirement, while the claims of overtime and travel allowance have also not been paid.”
The union leaders have blamed the government scheme to give free electricity to consumers for the financial crisis and wrong policies of the state government since Rs 2300 crore subsidy is being given.
Verma appealed to the state government and the people of the state to come forward to save the electricity board, which is a very large service sector.
