Cost cutting: KSEB annuls 799 meter reader posts

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: In a major step towards cost cutting, Kerala State Electricity Board Ltd (KSEB) has abolished 799 posts of energy meter readers.
The posts, which the KSEB had earlier reported to Kerala state public service commission, have been cancelled by the full-board meeting of KSEB.

However, the decision would be subject to the ratification of the same by the high court. Candidates who had earlier applied for the meter reader posts notified by the PSC had approached the HC, seeking speedy steps to fill the vacancies.


However, according to a KSEB order dated February 23, 2018, KSEB did not wish to recruit fresh candidates to the post of meter reader as it was about to deploy smart energy meters at consumer end. Unlike the meters now in use, the smart meters would not require personal visit to the consumer’s premise for calculating the energy consumption by the user. Once the traditional meters are replaced with smart ones, the KSEB staff would be able to know the energy consumption of users without personal visit.

“ A triplicate memorandum of understanding was signed among ministry of power, government of India and government of Kerala and KSEB under the UDAY scheme on March 2, 2017 to take various measures to improve the efficiency of KSEB. Among other things mutually agreed, it was also decided to install smart meters to various buildings in accordance with the volume of consumption. The company had already got the approval from the Government of India to buy and install 5 lakh smart meters and the company is going ahead with the procurement. In the above scenario, further recruitment to the post of meter reader will create a situation of underutilisation of meter readers,” the board order said.

The company has introduced personal digital assistant (PDA) for meter reading in all field offices in the distribution wing. As a result, the job description of meter readers has been completely changed and now meter reading job can be done by any category of employees available within the company. Further, a phased reduction of existing vacancies of meter readers is badly needed, the order said.