Punjab govt terminates PSPCL’s director (generation), cites ‘serious misconduct’ in fuel cost management

“Despite PSPCL having its own coal mine in Pachwara in Jharkhand, the electricity generated at the Guru Gobind Singh Super Thermal Plant in Ropar and the Guru Amardas Thermal Plant in Goindwal is costing between Rs 0.75 and Rs 1.25 per unit, more than private thermal plants, resulting in losses worth crores to the power utility. This clearly points to misconduct by Director (generation) Harjit Singh. This proves that there was misappropriation in the fuel cost,” reads the order.

Similar action was previously taken against Chief Engineer Harish Sharma, who was suspended with effect from November 1 due to alleged fuel cost irregularities.

Justifying the “termination without any prior notice,” Garg stated in the termination order, “The director’s appointment letter on June 6, 2012, stated that if misconduct is found, his services can be terminated at any time without notice. In view of the officer’s misconduct, his services are terminated as per the provisions of his appointment.”

Garg, who was appointed the head of the Power Department as well as the Chairman and Managing Director of the PSPCL and the Punjab State Transmission Corporation Limited (PSTCL) last week after his predecessor A K Sinha was divested of the charge, had on November 1, suspended Chief Engineer Harish Sharma because “the power generation costs of government thermal plants were found to be significantly higher than those of private plants, even though the coal was coming from Pachwara mine. The action was taken under the Punjab State Electricity Board Employees (Punishment and Appeal) Regulations 1971.”

Sources said the termination came after “dissent shown by Harjit Singh over the government’s move to sell properties of PSPCL, an autonomous corporation of the state, under the Optimum Use of Vacant Government Lands (OUVGL)”.

The PSEB Engineer Association protested the suspension of Harjit Singh and had written a letter to Power Minister Sanjeev Arora, protesting the suspension of Harish Sharma.

The protesting engineers claimed that the 40-year-old Ropar thermal plant could never compete with newer thermal plants as far as generation is concerned.

A former chief engineer said, “The Ropar thermal plant uses sub-critical technology and its units are very small, with only one unit capable of producing 210 MW. Private thermal plants in Rajpura or Talwandi Sabo are three times larger. Therefore, any action on grounds of higher fuel costs is clearly an attempt to intimidate the engineers, who pose a significant obstacle to the government’s intention to sell PSPCL’s land.”

When A K Sinha was transferred out, it was stated that he too was “not in favour of selling the PSPCL land”. At his place, the government not only appointed Garg, a secretary-rank officer, as the department’s Administrative Secretary, but also gave him the
additional charge of the PSPCL CMD.

The PSEB Association wrote to Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann, terming the action “political interference”, and demanded that “instead of an IAS officer, a technocrat should be appointed to the CMD post so that professional decisions could be taken in power generation”.