CHANDIGARH: The UT administration has directed the UT electricity department to submit a progress report on power infrastructure projects.
As the centre has started the process for the privatisation of Chandigarh electricity department, the UT administration has also started preparing its report related to power projects. The UT will provide all these details to the consultant engaged by the Union government. The Centre-appointed state run Power Finance Corporation (PFC) had recently appointed Deloitte as consultant to help the privatisation of UT electricity department.
In May, the Union finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman had said electricity distribution companies in union territories (UTs) will be privatised.
But the employees’ unions had started opposing privatisation moves. Thereafter, the UT administration had assured to power department employees that their services and related benefits will be safeguarded and their employment terms will be similar or they will be better than the present service terms. There will be no retrenchment of employees and no employees will be transferred outside the geographical area served by the electricity wing of the engineering department, Chandigarh, they were assured. Further, meetings have been carried out with the employees’ unions to understand their concerns, the UT administration stated.
Joint Electricity Regulatory Commission (JERC), in the past too, had issued directions to the UT administration for restructuring and reformation of the department, which is mandatory according to the Electricity Act, 2003.
The commission had pulled up the department during a public hearing in 2018 for delay in enforcing the mandate of the act pertaining to corporatisation.
