JAMMU: The Jammu and Kashmir Electrical Engineering Graduates Association [JKEEGA] held an emergency Guidance Council meeting on Thursday under the chairmanship of Er Sachin Tickoo, President JKEEGA & Er Pirzada Hidayatullah, General Secretary JKEEGA and denounced the action of Government in strong terms wherein engineers have been cherry picked and suspended for no fault of theirs without assessing replies furnished by engineers who were served show cause notices. The replies as per standing norms should have been assessed by a technical committee so that sense would have prevailed and no decision like suspensions in haste would have been taken. The members opined that the engineers working in these areas have been made scapegoats for poor infrastructure/ lack of adequate staff and non-metering/ABC cabling. These are basic minimum requirements for fixing accountability in realistic terms. The engineers who have been suspended had already submitted a reasoned response in detail on the show cause notices served to them and highlighted improvements made particularly in terms of improvement of billing efficiency/loss reduction on a month-on-month and year-on-year basis and overall revenue realization. The revenue targets set were exceptionally higher than the previous year even though Amnesty’s realization of last year’s magnitude was not going to take place in the current financial year. It is pertinent to mention that the Revenue realization of PDD shall definitely surpass all previous records. It is due to the strenuous efforts from all corners. It is also to be realistically accepted that not all feeders and sub-divisions have the same class of consumers, and economic status that too with different levels of infrastructure availability. It is to be seen through the prism of the action taken itself, given the fact that after smart metering/ABC cabling in the urban areas the pilferage and overall AT&C Losses have reduced considerably and hence none of the engineers is in-efficient in urban areas because the system is in place. The billing efficiency automatically improves once every unit is accounted for using an energy meter. In rural areas, thousands of consumers are being billed on a flat rate basis and when consumer load is revised bare minimum on a flat rate, then it becomes law and order issue as consumers throng to streets over excessive bills. The awareness drives are being rigorously conducted to pull out the consumers from the flat rate category and make them install digital meters Even in DISCOMs of other states/UTs, a separate enforcement wing is there along with dedicated Police stations to take the cases of theft of electricity to a logical conclusion. The engineers in JPDCL/KPDCL work right from maintenance of smooth power supply, repair work, attending to consumer grievances, public Darbar’s, inspections, disconnections, enforcement 24×7, 365 Days. Numerous complaints for registering FIRs in the cases of theft of electricity have been sent to Police stations only to find out no action has been taken on the same. As far as collection efficiency is concerned, the arrears from Civil departments and central govt agencies are awaited against the assessment of energy used by them every month. JKEEGA appeals Government to respect the sanctity of the Model Code of conduct and such actions are merely an act of posturing in the eyes of the electorate and seem politically motivated as the revenue realized in all these particular cases is higher than the corresponding previous years except for certain State Govt sector /PHE where revenue in the previous year had come on account of the realization of arrears of previous years and after April 2024, the fresh assessment from zero opening balance has started. The Guidance Council has resolved that while we all are seized by the fact that revenue realization is to be pursued vigorously and all efforts are already being put in despite meager support from govt in enforcement. The decision of the Govt to suspend the twelve Engineers from Junior Engineer to Assistant Ex Engineer is unjustified /unreasonable and devoid of merit. The replies to the show cause notices issued by the department should have been examined immediately by Senior officers in the Technical hierarchy of the department, before taking any such action. JKEEGA seeks the formation of a committee comprising of technical heads of the Power Development Department for examining all such cases and immediate revocation of the suspension orders of the twelve engineers within seven days and in case the Govt fails to heed to the plea of the fraternity, it has been resolved that there shall be a complete sit-in protest across J&K against this unjustified act on 30th March 2024.
