5 chief engineers among 815 engineering posts vacant in PDD

Srinagar/ Jammu, Dec 19: In a revelation that adds another layer to Kashmir's mounting power crisis, over 815 engineering positions are lying vacant across the power department, including five crucial posts of chief engineers, severely hampering the sector's operational capabilities.

A detailed breakdown of the vacancies paints a grim picture of understaffing across all hierarchical levels: five Chief Engineer positions, 17 Superintending Engineer posts, 58 Executive Engineer positions, 136 Assistant Executive Engineer roles, 163 Assistant Engineer positions, and 436 Junior Engineer vacancies remain unfilled.

Addressing news conference, Jammu Kashmir Electrical Engineering Graduates Association (JKEEGA) President Pirzada Hidayatulla said, “The crisis has forced the department to resort to stopgap arrangements, with single individuals shouldering multiple responsibilities. This overburdening has significantly impacted the corporations' performance, given the enormous volume of work that individual engineers are expected to handle.”

Hidayatulla highlighted the growing alienation among power engineers.

He pointed to a particularly demoralising aspect of their service – the issue of confirmation and regularisation that has remained unresolved for decades.

“The power engineering fraternity has been continuously longing for their confirmation on their respective posts and grades for decades. The adhocism and stopgap arrangement at the time of interim promotions have caused frustration and distress among the rank and file of the fraternity which needs to be done away with in the right earnest,” he said.

Hidayatulla said that stark illustration of this crisis was evident in the retirement patterns.

“Engineers who serve at senior positions are forced to retire at much junior pay grades - Chief Engineers are superannuating at Assistant Engineer grades, while Superintending Engineers, Executive Engineers, and Assistant Executive Engineers are retiring at Junior Engineer grades. This not only affects their dignity but also significantly reduces their pension benefits despite decades of service,” he said.

The association has taken a firm stance on these issues.

“After serving a 26-day notice to the Government on December 4, demanding regularization of all engineers as per the State Administrative Council (SAC) decision of 2019, JKEEGA has announced its intention to proceed with a protest scheduled for December 30,” Hidyatulla said.

He said further compounding the sector’s problems is the stalled implementation of an enforcement wing, despite approval from the SAC and cabinet.

“A committee established under the government order 165-PDD of 2019 strongly recommended creating an enforcement vertical to combat power pilferage. The committee emphasised that this investment would be self-sustaining, with a quick payback period and no burden on the state exchequer,” he said.

Meanwhile, JKEEGA in a statement issued here said, “The Board of Directors of Jammu Power Distribution Corporation Limited (JPDCL) had also recommended the formation of this enforcement wing on February 25, 2021. The proposal included 167 posts, with staffing procedures aligned with JKPDD Order 191 of 2019 dated October 23, 2019. However, despite these approvals and recommendations, the enforcement wing remains on paper.”

It said that the fact that this crucial wing, designed to check power pilferage and improve revenue collection, has not materialised despite SAC approval raises serious questions about the administration’s commitment to resolving the power sector’s challenges.

“The continued vacancy crisis, coupled with the delayed implementation of approved measures, suggests a deeper administrative paralysis that continues to plague Kashmir's power sector, ultimately affecting both the service providers and the general public,” the statement said.

Meanwhile, JKEEGA in Jammu announced to continue with its “one-day peaceful protest on December 30”, as decided earlier this month, “though without affecting essential services” to reiterate its demand for regularisation of engineers.

The association, seeking clearance of regularisation of all engineers of JKPDD as per SAC decision of 2019 to fulfil 815 vacant positions in the department, had served a 26-day notice to the government on December 4, 2024 for resolving its demand.

Addressing a news conference at Press Club, Jammu, JKEEGA General Secretary Sachin Tickoo, joined by other members said, “As no progress on the issue has been achieved till date, therefore JKEEGA has decided to continue with its protest call for December 30, 2024.”

“The decision of resorting to democratic means of protest was taken by the Guidance Council of JKEEGA, an apex body of power engineers of J&K, both at Srinagar and Jammu on December 4, 2024. The JKPDD engineers feel alienated and neglected as basic HR issues faced by them have not been settled by successive governments. This has led to huge distress amongst the cadre,” Tickoo stated.

He sought to corroborate his statement with the current vacancy position of the Power Development Department.

“Presently vacancy position includes two posts of Managing Director (MD); one post of Joint MD; 4 posts of Executive Director; one post of Secretary Technical; 6 posts of Chief Engineers;  17 posts of Superintending Engineer; 53 posts of Executive Engineer; 136 posts of Assistant Executive Engineers (AEE); 163 posts of AE and 436 posts of Junior Engineer (JE)-436, which is against the sanctioned strength of 1981. The prospective structures and manpower requirements reflected in unbundling reports by professional HR consultants rendered to Department have asked for proportionate increase of manpower at all levels given that the assets increased by nearly 5000 times since last so many years and are facing lack of proper supervision in absence of requisite manpower,” Tickoo said.

He said that the Power engineering fraternity had been continuously longing for their confirmation on their respective posts and grades from decades.

“The adhocism and stopgap arrangement at the time of interim promotions without regularisation has caused frustration and distress among the rank and file of the fraternity which needs to be done away within the right earnest,” he said.

He mentioned that the Chief Engineers and Superintending Engineers were superannuating in the grades of Assistant Engineers or even Junior Engineers which spoke volumes about the total indifference and humiliating treatment to the services rendered by them spreading over decades culminating in reduced pension benefits.

“The issue has further been worsened by casual approach of administrative department of JKPDD which despite of lapse of more than 10 months have not been able to reply to query raised by Establishment Cum Selection Committee in a meeting held on February 27, 2024 till date in respect of first lot of 250 Engineers who joined the department as Junior Engineers and Assistant Engineers from 1986 to 2001 despite the fact that Chief Secretary repeatedly has asked for speedy disposal of the regularization proposal in the review meetings,” Tickoo pointed out.

He stated that the inertia in progress could be gauged from the fact that the SAC decision for one time exemption from referral to PSC had been taken with an aim to address the chronic issue affecting nearly 2500 engineers of Power Development Department promoted from time to time from Junior Engineers to Chief Engineers till 2019.

“The fact is that today all sitting Chief Engineers are Assistant Engineers and Junior Engineers substantively, which had badly affected the morale of the PSC and SSRB appointees over the years vis a vis their counterparts appointed and working in sister engineering departments and CPSUs,” Tickoo said.

He pointed out that further apathy with Engineering Gazetted Services was about Assured Career Progression (ACP) despite the fact that the state cabinet vide its decision no 109/6/2018 dated May 11, 2018 had approved the ACP scheme for Engineering Gazetted Services along with the similar scheme for the Gazetted Police and JKAS services.

“However in the Governor administration as the popular government had fallen, vide SRO 215 of 2018 dated May 18, 2018 that cabinet decision was implemented only in favour of the Police and JKAS and Engineers were left in lurch despite similar arrangements for doctors and VAS already in place,” he said.

Further, he mentioned that the creations proposed in the unbundling committee reports and also by the respective boards of the JPDCL and KPDCL had not been implemented.

“The situation is grave as multiple charges at top level are assigned to a single person and it has burdened engineers beyond a limit and badly dented the performance of these corporations keeping in view the volume of work that a single person has to dispose off,” Tickoo said.

“Given this apathy of the government towards the issues faced by power engineers of JKPDD, we are forced to continue with the call of one day peaceful protest on December 30, 2024, without affecting essential services vis-à-vis hospitals, which will be held by power engineers across J&K with support of All India Power Engineers Federation,” he announced.

The other members of JKEEGA Executive body who were present in the press conference were Kuldeep Raj, Rajeshwar Jamwal, Purshottam Lal Sharma, Yash Paul, Jahangir Ahmed, Vipul sharma, Vishal Chib, Ankush Sharma, Ankush Gupta, Rajeev Gupta, Vijay Sharma, Sumit Sharma and Rohit Gupta among others.