The stand-off between Andhra Pradesh and Telangana power utilities over the allocation of State-cadre employees between the two States continued on the first day of the last leg of Justice D.M. Dharmadhikari one-man committee meeting here on Saturday as the efforts of the panel to convince the two sides went vain.
It also witnessed some tense moments following heated arguments that took place between the officials of two AP utilities and the representatives of Telangana electricity employees bodies. The latter understood to have strongly opposed the presence of Chairman and Managing Director of AP Southern Power Distribution Company H. Haranatha Rao at the meeting stating that CMDs were not supposed to be there.
Along with Mr. Haranatha Rao, AP was also represented by Joint MD of Transmission Corporation of AP K.V.N. Chakradhar Babu and Telangana was represented by Director (Human Resources) of TS Power Generation Corporation S. Ashok Kumar in the meeting with Mr. Dharmadhikari to find an amicable solution to the prolonging issue.
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Sources stated that the one-man committee tried to convince the AP officials till afternoon asking them to absorb 613 out of 1,157 employees relieved by Telangana in July 2015 and who have opted to work in AP following the opportunity given by the panel to given options as also to examine case of 265 other employees who had opted to work in Telangana during the second opportunity given case-by-case basis by going through their service registers.
However, the AP officials were stated to have remained adamant that they would not absorb any of the 1,157 employees. “They became more adamant after CMD of AP-Transco N. Srikanth spoke to Mr. Dharmadhikari over phone in the afternoon,” a TS official said adding that all the SC, ST employees among 1,157 were unilaterally allocated (provisionally) to Telangana by AP even after the one-man panel’s October first week directions.
Mr. Dharmadhikari was understood to have asked AP Energy Secretary/Transco CMD to create supernumerary posts to absorb the 613 employees with AP-nativity as agreed at the last meeting but met with a negative response. “As he failed to convince AP officials, Mr. Dharmadhikari tried to force Telangana representative to agree to absorb all 1,257 employees towards the evening and it was turned down vehemently,” the official stated.
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Telangana Power Engineers Association represented by P. Rathnakar Rao, P. Sadanandam and others, who represented their grievance before the committee, reiterated their demand to allocate all AP-native employees to that State as they were recruited in Telangana region during combined AP rule against the then existing norms.
Chairman of Telangana Electricity Employees JAC N. Sivaji alleged that the AP power utilities’ managements had provoked some of the 1,157 employees to move the Supreme Court seeking directions to Telangana utilities to give them promotions when the issue was still under the one-man committee to make it more complex.