PSEB engineers’ body holds emergency meet,plans stir

However,even after the lapse of about six months,no concrete efforts have been made on the part of the state government. Rather,the government unilaterally released a draft of a tripartite agreement,absolving itself of all responsibilities after the bifurcation and in the process never even cared to take into confidence the engineers and employees,alleged the Association members.

The tripartite agreement is of paramount importance for the engineers and employees since the financial health of both the state sovernment and PSEB’s successor companies are in very bad shape. PSEB had utilised more than Rs 1,800 crore of employees provident fund money for their capital works and the state government had neither created any statutory fund to safeguard employees interests nor extended any solemn guarantee for payment of retirement benefits or provident fund withdrawal,said Sukhbir Singh,one of the member of the Engineers’ Association.

The Association appealed to the Punjab Chief Minister to instruct the management of Powercom and the state machinery to fulfil all the commitments made at the time of unbundling of PSEB in order to maintain the sanctity of understanding reached at the highest level at that time.