The managements of power utilities of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh put forward their arguments on the issue of 1,157 Andhra Pradesh-native employees working in the four utilities of Telangana before the Justice D.M. Dharmadhikari Committee here on Monday, the second day of its exercise towards resolving the dispute.
The two sides reiterated the stand taken by them on the issue as the Telangana side requested the one-man committee to limit the dispute resolution only to the 1,157 employees without giving the scope of option to the employees as per an agreement reached at by the Chief Secretaries of the two States in the past and not to consider fresh requests for transfer to Telangana utilities.
The AP side, however, wanted the committee to consider fresh requests for employees' transfer to Telangana utilities.
Chairman and Managing Directors of Telangana Genco & Transco, Southern Distribution Company and Northern Distribution Company D. Prabhakar Rao, G. Raghuma Reddy and A. Gopal Rao, Joint Managing Director Transco C. Srinivasa Rao and Director (HR) of Genco S. Ashok Kumar represented Telangana power utilities' managements, while Joint MD of AP Transco Dinesh Paruchuri and others represented AP.
Women employees' associations from Telangana and AP and SC, ST employees association from AP also submitted representations to the Justice Dharmadhikari Committee with their point of view.
Official sources stated that AP side requested the committee hold its next hearing either at Amaravati or at Tirupati. The managements and employees' association of AP power utilities were trying to push more of their employees into Telangana utilities to complicate the issue of employees division further.
“Besides, the prospects of increase in the retirement age to 61 years and better pay revision in Telangana have also been making the AP employees give a shot at the opportunity, if any, to shift to Telangana utilities,” a senior engineer stated on Monday.
Meanwhile, senior engineers of Telangana power utilities including those in the Chief Engineer and Superintending Engineer ranks held a meeting here on Monday, in which it was resolved to protect the interests of Telangana employees by not allowing the AP-origin staff getting back into the utilities and holding senior positions.
“After the long dispute over division of the employees, we are not in a mood to work together with Andhra Pradesh-native employees,” a senior engineer who participated in the meeting told The Hindu .
