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Southco engineers, workers on the warpath

BERHAMPUR: Members of the joint coordination committee of the Southco engineers and workers unions organised a day-long demonstration in front of headquarter of the power distribution company in the city on Friday.

They alleged that despite repeated requests the Southco authorities were doing little to chalk out an action plan to sort out the problems of employees as well as customers. “We would hamper the revenue collection process of the private power distribution company if our demands are not met soon,” said J. Chadrasekhar Achari, leader of the coordination committee.

The major demands of the employees were related to filling of large number of vacancies, creation of new posts as per the increase in number of consumers and proper payment of ex gratia and bonus. The employees alleged that dearth of of employees had affected the maintenance and service due to which the electrical consumers of south Orissa remain dissatisfied.

Before 1999 there were around 2,40,000 electricity consumers under the Southco. The number of consumers had increased to over 5,45,000 in recent times, said the employees. But in contrast the number of employees under the power distribution company has gone down. As per the leaders of the coordination committee, the Southco had around 5,700 employees in 1999 but now their number is around 3400. “The irony is that the number of field staff like linemen and helpers, who are the real provider of service, has got reduced drastically,” said Mishra, president of the coordination committee. They alleged that the power distribution needs to appoint around 2,000 field staff for proper service to electricity consumers in south Orissa.

They said a few years ago there used to be a proper fuse call office for every seven villages but now a single fuse call office manages around 30 villages and at times a single lineman or helper manages this fuse call office. They also demanded better promotion facility and sops like bonus and ex gratia payments for the staff. They handed over a memorandum to the CEO of the Southco. The employees threatened to stop revenue collection of the power distribution company, if the management did not heed to their demands. They would hold another meeting of the coordination committee on Oct 4 to decide their future course of action.

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