BATHINDA: All Powercom engineers will switch off their official mobile phones from Monday after office hours as a mark of protest against the high handedness of DC Bhatinda and this protest will continue until the withdrawal of such arbitrary duty orders issued by the DC.
An emergency meeting of the state executive of the PSEB Engineers' Association was held today at Bathinda to address the issue of non-departmental duties to power engineers and the high-handed actions of the Deputy Commissioner Bathinda. Ajay Pal Singh Atwal general secretary said that the DC Bathinda has threatened engineers with FIRs and issued show cause notices against them.
The executive body unanimously condemned the behaviour and actions of the DC, deeming them unacceptable and a threat to ensuring energy security of the region. It was observed that whereas other district administrations have exempted the power sector from such duties but DC Bathinda failed to realise the importance of the power sector and the emergency nature of the service being rendered by the engineers and technical staff of PSPCL/ PSTCL. In case any further action is taken against any engineer, all engineers across Punjab will immediately proceed on mass casual leave.
According to sources , there are at least 12 defaulters government connections which owe more than 10 lakh each. The total pending arrears of Bhatinda are around 20 crores. The top four defaulters are Public health (12.33 crores), Senior medical officer ( 1.85 crores), civil hospital 1.44 crores and water works 1.11 crores.. Even the DC office is at no.7 is yet to clear around 34.23 lakhs amount.