First shock of Maya transfers: Power engineers on strike

Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati’s sweeping transfers in the state bureaucracy have had their first fall-out. Power engineers have...

Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati’s sweeping transfers in the state bureaucracy have had their first fall-out. Power engineers have decided to oppose her decision to put IAS officers at the helm of the state’s leading power agency instead of technocrats who ruled the roost since 1973.

The engineers have decided to meet on May 14 to chalk out their future plan of action. On Monday, they will boycott work all over the state for two hours from 3 pm. They also appealed to Mayawati to withdraw the IAS officers and put engineers at the helm if she wanted the sector to run smoothly.

Mayawati has appointed A.K. Rastogi as chairman, Pradeep Shukla as managing director and B.P. Neelratna and Rajiv Kapoor as additional MDs of the Uttar Pradesh Power Corporation Limited (UPPCL).

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All of them are IAS officers. The technocrats had taken control of the sector in 1973 from bureaucrats, who were at the helm of affairs since Independence, after a fierce tussle. But they could not bring about any improvement. Dues mounted to Rs 4000 crore as they failed to crack down on defaulters. Those who dared, incurred the wrath of bureaucrats.

During their reign, transmission and distribution losses touched 40 per cent and in parts of eastern UP and Bundelkhand it mounted to 67 per cent. Now it’s the turn of officials to blame the technocrats for all the problems faced by the sector.

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