Srinagar, Aug 29: The Jammu and Kashmir Electrical Engineering Graduates Association (JKEEGA) Tuesday said that they would go on protest leave on September 9 against various issues.
Addressing a news conference here, JKEEGA said that the vacant posts, adhocism, and other human resources issues were taking a toll on them, forcing them to take this step.
Addressing the media persons, JKEEGA General Secretary, PirzadaHidayatullah said that the engineering fraternity of the Power Department had been for decades longing for getting confirmed on their respective posts and grades.
“The adhocism and additional charges given to officials have caused frustration and distress among the fraternity, which needs to be done away with. Chief Engineers are superannuating in the grades of Assistant Engineers while as Superintending Engineers, Executive Engineers and Assistant Executive Engineers are superannuating in the grades of Junior Engineers. It speaks volumes about the indifference and humiliating treatment towards the services rendered by engineers of JKPDD over decades,” Hidayatullah said.
He said that the SAC in October 2019 had directed to complete the regularisation process at the departmental level after approval from the Establishment-cum-Selection Committee but to date the decision was yet to be implemented.
“The department is not moving ahead regarding the incharge promotions too. The vacuum exists to the extent that currently more than 700 posts are vacant in the department across all levels. The matter is so grave that the post of Managing Director, Transmission Corporation is vacant for the last seven months and three posts of Executive Directors in DISCOMs and TRANSCO have been vacant since February 2022,” Hidayatullah said.
He said that four posts of chief engineers and 13 posts of Superintending Engineers were also vacant, which affects the functioning of the Power Corporations at the highest level.
Hidayatullah said that the situation at the lower management level was also grave, and every Executive Engineer was holding charge of three to four divisions spread across multiple districts.
He said that due to the non-filling of vacancies at various levels, a total of 721 engineering cadre posts in PDD were currently vacant.
Hidayatullah said that if concrete steps were not initiated for immediate redressal of the non-filling of vacancies, it would become impossible to achieve standards and targets set by the government for the development of the power sector of J&K.
He said that none of the Junior Engineers had been recruited since 2016, and at present, 333 posts of Junior Engineers were vacant.
“The result is that a single JE is manning so many feeders, resulting in inefficiency, which eventually results in high losses. The department is working at 50 percent strength, which is putting brakes in achieving the target of uninterrupted and reliable power supply,” Hidayatullah said.
He said that following the long pending issue, the Guidance Council of JKEEGA of both Kashmir and Jammu regions, in an emergency meeting, had decided that all the graduate engineers of J&K PDD would submit a one-day protest leave to the government for September 9 and assemble at PDD Complex Jammu and Bemina to register a one-day peaceful protest against non-seriousness of the government towards their legitimate demands.
