Power Outage: Chandigarh administration terminates services of 17 outsourced employees

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, February 25

In a swift action against erring employees of the Electricity Department for allegedly disrupting power supply in the city, the UT Administration today terminated the services of 17 outsourced employees and suspended two junior engineers (JEs), besides issuing show-cause notices to 127 regular employees, including a Superintending Engineer.

The Administration terminated the services of 17 outsourced employees and suspended two JEs, who were supervising the electricity supply of the GMCH, Sector 32, and the GMSH, Sector 16, till further investigation is on.

Meanwhile, the Administration issued a show-cause notice to the Superintending Engineer (Electricity) for lack of co-operation with the Army authorities in restoration of power supply after the strike by members of the UT Powermen Union.

The authorities also issued show-cause notices to 126 other regular employees of the department for grave misconduct by remaining absent from duty, which resulted in non-maintenance of defaulting lines, affecting the power supply in many areas of the city. For defying the orders of the Administration, an FIR has already been registered against 143 employees of the department.

In the ongoing investigation, the Administration constituted a committee, headed by Yashpal Garg, Secretary, Health, along with the Medical Superintendent, GMSH, Sector 16, the Medical Superintendent, GMCH, Sector 32, and Gurpreet Singh, XEN (Electrical), to scrutinise the lapses that led to power failure in both hospitals. In protest against the privatisation of the Electricity Department, the UT Powermen Union gave a call for a three-day strike from February 22 to 24. After the employees went on a strike on the intervening night of February 21 and 22, mostareas in the city plunged into darkness. It is suspected that the protesting employees sabotaged the power supply to various areas of the city.

When residents raised a hue and cry after many areas also did not get regular water supply, the UT Administration invoked the Essential Services Maintenance Act (ESMA) and banned strikes across the city for six months by employees of the Engineering Department (Electricity) and asked the protesting employees to join their duties, failing which strict action was to be initiated against them.

As the employees failed to join the duty, the Administration took the assistance of the Military Engineer Services (MES) for the distribution, transmission, operation and maintenance of the electricity supply in the city.

Four-member panel set up

A four-member committee has been constituted to scrutinise the lapses that led to power failure at the GMCH, Sector 32, and the GMSH, Sector 16.

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