Management pushed power board to bankruptcy: Pensioners

Nurpur, June 3

The Himachal Pradesh State Electricity Board Ltd (HPSEBL) Pensioners Forum organised a sammelan at Bharmar in the Jawali subdivision of Kangra district on Monday.

Hundreds of pensioners from Jawali, Nurpur, Fatehpur, Gangath and Indora units participated in the event.

Pensioners Forum (Hamirpur unit) president and former state president, HPSEBL employees’ union, Kuldeep Kharwara presided over the sammelan.

Addressing the pensioners, Kharwara said the HPSEBL was reeling under severe distress, and such apathy of its management had never been seen in the past.

Accusing the HPSEBL management of bringing the board to the brink of bankruptcy, he attributed this to the alleged mismanagement by the authorities.

He claimed that employees who served in the HPSEBL for 35-38 years had not been paid their post-retirement benefits such as gratuity, leave encashment and other outstanding financial benefits.

Kharwara said the board had also failed to release outstanding arrears of 20 per cent revised gratuity amount calculated on the basis of revised scales to the board employees who retired after January 2016, and approved during the previous BJP government.

“A few months ago, the present state government issued a notification to release the revised pay scale arrears and 4 per cent DA installment but the board management has not implemented the government’s order,” he added.

Kharwara also expressed concern over the non-appointment of a regular Managing Director (MD) of the HPSEBL.

“A delegation of the HPSEBL employees’ union had met Chief Minister Sukhinder Singh Sukhu on April 5 at Nadaun. Sukhu had telephonically directed the MD to grant the approval of the recommendation after procuring permission of the State Election Commission. However, no approval has been granted so far,” he said. On this occasion, the forum honoured HPSEBL pensioner unit (Jawali) president Ram Lubhaya on completing 75 years of age.