Working of U.P. Electricity Officials - VIII
By Ram Bansal, 1st Dec 2011 | Follow this author
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There are 39 terms and conditions mentioned in the tender documents for employment through contractors and none of them is being followed by the officials in awarding such contracts resulting into fatal accidents, poor availability of electricity to consumers and damage to equipment.
Background
So far in this series of articles, you have read the following 6 articles -
1. Availability of Electricity,
2. Work Contracts,
3. Obstacles in New Connections,
4. No MIS makes everyone free,
5. Consumer Service Personnel,
6. Murdering of Unemployed Youths.
7. Wastage of Electricity.
Now, read on how these officials are criminally conspiring and overlooking even the legal provisions in their working.
Criminal Conspiracy in Employment
As I reported in an earlier post, a contract employee of the electricity distribution corporation died recently wile working on an 11 kv line where he was not qualified to work but was officially deputed for the job. In that connection I have traced the terms and conditions of contract employment by the corporation as specified in the tender document issued by the corporation officials.
There are 39 terms and conditions of employment of workers through a contractor, and 13 responsibilities of the contractor in respect of the work, corporation and the workers provided by them. These include qualifications of the workers, legal provisions like minimum wage act, safety provisions, etc. I further checked up with the workers so employed by the corporation and found to my shock of life that none out of a total 39+13 impositions of the contract, none is being complied with by any - the officials and the contractors. Their only criteria is employing unemployed youths with minimum salary much less than that stipulated by the minimum wages act of the state, ignoring qualifying requirements of the workers as no adequately qualified person can be available at the petty salary they provide to such workers, and ignoring all the safety provisions for the workers.
The responsibility of abiding by the terms and conditions of the contract is not that of the contractors alone but also on the executing officials of the corporation. Non-compliance of these results into illiterate and unskilled persons being put on the dangerous jobs of repair works on high voltage electricity lines and other equipment having three clear-cut repercussions -
1. Fatal Accidents
There are fatal accidents on electricity lines killing workers, animals and members of public coming in contact with live wires every now and then. Such cases are managed by the culprit officials and contractors in connivance with the local police.
2. Poor Services
Since equipment and lines feeding electricity to consumers are not being maintained properly, breakdowns resulting into disruption of electricity to consumers are frequent. Consumers of electricity suffer on this account heavily.
3. Damage to Equipment
For the poor maintenance, equipment and lines are getting damaged causing financial losses to the corporation but gains to the officials on personal levels.
Further Reading
Please also see -
1. Working of U.P. Electricity Officials - IX
2. Working of U.P. Electricity Officials - X
Comments
2nd Dec 2011 (#)
Lovely work.
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3rd Dec 2011 (#)
thanks Md Rezaul, for the appreciation and encouragement in my struggles for an improvement in my circumstances.
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