Officials from the Kharar and Lalru divisions have been directed to submit data on outstanding dues, especially those from defaulters owing between Rs 50,000 and Rs 1 lakh. The consultant has also requested a list of 264 priority feeders that need upgrades, in addition to those where power cuts last more than an hour. The pilot project is expected to be discussed at length by the PSPCL Director of Distribution on Monday.An official said that while Lalru and Kharar are confirmed, the final decision on the other subdivisions to be included in the project is yet to be made.The move has sparked concern among employees, as more than 25,000 posts are reportedly lying vacant in PSPCL. Currently, only 5,072 out of 13,390 posts for linemen, 6,790 out of 22,769 for assistant linemen, and 2,110 out of 3,482 posts for junior engineers are filled, indicating a severe staff shortage. Despite this, the corporation recently issued advertisements to recruit 3,000 new linemen.Meanwhile, a long-pending proposal for restructuring subdivisions is awaiting approval from the state government. New subdivisions are supposed to be created in areas like Zirakpur, Kharar, and Lalru, where the number of consumers exceeds 25,000. Kharar alone has around one lakh consumers. The last time new subdivisions were created was in 2007. At present, Punjab has a total of 500 subdivisions.Sources also revealed that there are already 5,000 outsourced employees handling meter reading and working as linemen across the state.A senior PSPCL official said, “Presently the outsourced staff is looking after the domestic consumers’ complaints and meter reading. Only some more services will be allocated to outsourced employees to bring more efficiency,” he added. “Besides domestic consumers, the outsourced employees will also handle industrial complaints, shutdowns of 11KVA lines and all other technical services.”Davinder Singh, Patron of the JE’s Council, criticised the move: “Corporation which outsourced complaint handling system had totally failed and the corporation has admitted this on record and told us to suggest an alternative method. We suggested regular recruitment. Also, we told the corporation that there are alleged irregularities done by outsourced staff in meter reading and it should remain with the corporation.”Despite repeated attempts, Principal Secretary (Power)-cum-Chairman of PSPCL, A.K. Sinha, was not available for comments.
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