Sudhir Sharma
In one of my articles wherein 05 major issues were raised for taking immediate cognizance to address the perennially sick issue in the Power Development Department to rid this all prestigious department of wrong policies. To come clear a comprehensive relook on some of these issues is again the need of the hour as it is now or never.
First it is commendable that the Govt. sees this sector as a game changer precisely because it is the only major sector which is capable of turning the economies around in shortest time with proper planning and backed by logistical support both technical & financial. Whereas the union Govt. wants each house electrified by 2018 with schemes like DDUGJY & Power for All (24×7) specifically for rural households, there is also focused attention on quality power supply in town areas with complete infrastructure revamping taking place under RAPDRP and IPDS. The schemes are desperately much needed in our State and the Government of India has been generously funding these flagship schemes. The onus is entirely on the Power Department to reap the benefits of these schemes through proper planning right from execution to its operational level. The PDD must realize that never again on earth its gonna receive such a huge funding for complete revamp of power infrastructure; if executed fully & timely it can work wonders for the sector and all important the ultimate end users particularly in terms of quality supply. However given the trajectory of style and functioning of the department so far there are more questions than answers to the problem.
First and foremost the Government has to address the already distressed engineering workforce right from the technician’s level as all of them are overly far too stretched with work load and that is primarily the reason why maintenance people are mostly found wanting when it matters the most be it a line staff or field Engineers. I mean to say that he never gets time to attend to the system generated exigencies as a part of routine maintenance schedule activity, it is only after a breakdown has occured. Each and every power engineer wants to avoid breakdown maintenance in peak hours given the public pressure. The focus of all concerned has to be on maintaining a routine scheduled activity. Similarly the backbone of the system i.e. Technicians and linemen too want to avoid it however due to poor health of the system coupled with alarming work load, the two “wheels” of the power system i.e. the Engineer & the technicians are moving 3600 and 24×7. With zero recruitment of line staff over the last 10 years and shortage of Jr. Engineers in EM&RE the saturation in this all important sector is bound to get serious with each passing day because too much workload on these field engineers / staffers on one side takes its toll on their workability which ultimately deteriorates the system further. It also absolves them of the “Invisible sins” they commit knowingly or unknowingly under the garb of “too much work pressure”. The ultimate tragedy unfortunately is the power system and of course the consumers. How can we ask them to be accountable for each unit of energy billed unless we give them some breathing space. Imagine a fate of a line staff who has line length running in hundreds of kilometers with over 30 substations to look after in treacherous terrain. The very good intentions of the Government like conducting regular inspections gets defeated as he hardly gets time to even attend to power outages forget about his availability to check power pilferage etc. Can anyone imagine a commander fighting enemy without soldiers.
The Govt. with such a massive power reforms programme will be doing injustice with itself if the issue of acute shortage of manpower is not addressed within months as the system is bound to expand manifolds in unelectrified areas of the State as well where no road connectivity will create even further problems for the existing handul of field staff most of whom are either on the verge of retirement or are incapacitated due to various injuries suffered while working on the system.
Second issue is the power theft. If the manpower issue is addressed it is believed that the T&D/AT&C losses will reduce by at least 20% because lesser the number of substations / consumers per line staff the more will be the check on power theft and with cabling the issue of higher AT&C losses definitely will witness a downward trend. However mere dashing off a letter and jotting down few lines will not address the issue of power theft. The Govt. has to come clean on the subject as enshrined in J&K Electricity Act. 2010. First it has to institutionalize the enforcement wing with active support & involvement of law enforcing agencies. It is surprising that there has been no press conference / media interaction on this menace before. I had an interaction with my friend in UP who was surprised to see a world of difference in power theft cases reported before and after CM Yogi announced tough action against power theft unlike here where the onus has entirely been shifted on employees only. To check the menace of theft a wide publicity campaign is the need of the hour and latter the penal provisions of JK Electricity Act which also require the Government to notify the “assessing Officer” and appellate authority who could perform the related activities without which the penal provisions could not be invoked under CrPC.
Third and last is the human resource management of field engineers who hardly get their dues in time be it promotional benefits or field travel allowances etc. The greater work demand from field engineers also demands better deal with them. Isn’t it a joke that they get a field travel allowance of Rs. 30 per month. It is widely said that higher motivation level among any workforce can do wonders and the same is terribly missing in the department. There are no regular training sessions for the field engineers only a few trainings take place in years together smacks of the limited vision of the power authorities who are keen of running mega power projects but don’t even have a proper training curriculum for their engineers. Employees who feel committed to their coworkers perform better. This begs the question what are some ways that we can enable employees to feel the connection to their peers ? I think for the answer start reading again from point No. 1
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