EB unions blame dearth of manpower, basic materials for outage

CHENNAI: With action being initiated against field engineers over complaints of power cut, the Tamil Nadu Electricity Board Engineer’s Association has written to Tangedco over the shortage of men, money and material, including fuse wire, cables and conductors required to maintain uninterrupted power supply.

“There is a huge gap between planning and organising. Due to this, the execution part is a failure. The instructions of the Chairman-cum-Managing Director are merely passed on to the field by officials in charge of regions and circles, without even studying all the factors involved. Most of these officials are neither aware nor conversant of the field conditions or requirements which is very worrying. The onus of maintaining uninterrupted power supply is fixed on the section officers. This is causing fatigue, depression among them and is one of the main reasons behind accidents, ” the TNEBEA representation to the CMD stated.

Pointing out that scarcity of men, money and material, has been piling up miseries, the TNEBEA said that shortage of fuse wire, LT compound, hexagonal insulator, U clamp, Z clamp, insulation tape, cables, conductors, pin insulators, shackles, earth wire/pipe and transformer oil is quite acute and section officers are being made to fend for themselves.

They sought the intervention of the CMD to take necessary steps to bridge the gap between planning and organising to maintain uninterrupted power supply during the peak summer.

The Tamil Nadu Power Engineers Organisation said that apart from the shortage of manpower and material, assistant engineers who head the section office are facing a heavy workload. “As per the wage agreement, a section office should cover 18,000 service connections in the city but there are section offices having 45,000 to 54,000 service connections. With manpower shortage, it would result in delay in attending faults at consumer premises, ” a representative of TNPEO said.

However, a senior Tangedco official said that all materials have been made available at the section office. “If there is an issue, it should be taken up with the appropriate officials to get the required material to attend any works or faults,” the official added.