Sacking of HPSEBL staff to be reviewed: Minister

Our Correspondent
Palampur, March 5

Hundreds of employees of Himachal Pradesh State Electricity Board Limited (HPSEBL) today threatened to resort to “direct action” if the board did not withdraw the retrenchment orders issued to 1,244 outsourced employees. The HPSEBL had terminated the services of these employees two days ago.

Today, Kuldip Singh Kharwara, state president of the HPSEBL Employees Union, along with other union members assembled at the Jia Rest House near Palampur where Power Minister Sukh Ram Chaudhary was camping and staged a protest against the uncalled for action of the government. They raised slogans against the government and urged the minister to restore the services of the sacked employees. The minister assured them of taking up the issue with Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur and reviewing the retrenchment decision.

Kharwara said most of the sacked employees had been serving the HPSEBL for the past 10 to 15 years. The HPSEBL should have regularised their services instead of making fresh appointments. He added that six employees were electrocuted while on duty or killed in other mishaps.

The protesters told the minister that at present the HPSEBL was totally dependent on the outsourced employees and there would be a severe power crisis in the state if their services were not restored. Kharwara said that in Palampur division alone, 34 field employees were sacked and the situation in other divisions of the HPSEBL was also the same.

He said 5,500 posts were vacant in the HPSEBL and the government should fill these posts by retaining the sacked employees. The minister assured the agitating employees that the retrenchment decision would be reviewed. He would personally look into the issue and apprise the Chief Minister of the facts so that the outsourced employees could be retained.