Andhra Pradesh power utilities defend stand of not absorbing Telangana employees

VIJAYAWADA: The State power utilities strongly defended their stand on allocation of State cadre employees between Andhra Pradesh and Telangana before the one-man committee of Justice Dharmadhikari in New Delhi on Sunday.

Stating that the Supreme Court-appointed committee’s recommendation to reallocate 655 employees to AP was ‘highly objectionable’, the State argued that accommodating them would add to the already high financial burden of the power utilities.

According to the Joint Managing Director (JMD) of APTRANSCO, KVN Chakradhar Babu, senior advocate Puneet appeared before the one-man committee on behalf of AP power utilities and contended that the recommendations of the committee on reallocation of 655 employees to AP were against the provisions of AP Reorganisation Act, 2014.  

As per provision 47(3) R/w 64 of the Act, no financial burden has to be put on the State because of employees allocation and amicable settlement has to be done as per section 82 R/w 53, Puneet submitted before the committee.

The DM Dharmadhikari Committee held a high-level meeting in New Delhi on Sunday after the Supreme Court disposed of the interlocutory application filed by the AP power utilities praying that the confirmation of the allocations made in December, 2019, by the committee be set aside. The court, on January 24, directed the AP power companies to ‘expeditiously’ submit their pleas to the committee within two weeks.

AP officials on Sunday requested the committee that all the 6,102 employees need to be allocated between the two States and the ratios shouldn’t be altered. The 655 allocated by the committee are over and above the ratios, they argued. Energy Secretary Srikant Nagulapalli and other senior officials of AP submitted all the grievances before the committee and mentioned that the State power sector had undergone many hardships and the utilities were not in a position to bear the burden in the form of salaries and pensions.

The one-man committee, later in the evening, issued a statement on the proceedings in the day and said, “Keeping in view the urgency of situation, the sittings of the committee concluded for formulating the necessary directions and they will be communicated to the parties at the earliest.”

APGENCO MD B Sreedhar, Chairpersons and MDs of DISCOMs Nagalakshmi Selvarajan, H Haranatha Rao and J Padma Janardhan Reddy, other senior officials were present. Special Chief Secretary (Energy) Ajay Misra represented Telangana. 

AP utilities stick to their guns 

• SC-appointed committee’s recommendation to reallocate 655 employees to AP was ‘highly objectionable’  and against the AP Reorganisation Act, 2014
• As per the Act, no financial burden has to be put on State because of employees allocation and amicable settlement has to be done 
• Accommodating them will add to the financial burden of power utilities 
• 6,102 employees need to be allocated between the two States and the ratios shouldn’t be altered. The 655 allocated by the committee are over and above the ratios

Cancel TS order: 655 employees to panel  
Sources said that senior advocate Aruna Kumar Sanghi, who was representing the 655 employees, appealed to the committee for giving directions for cancellation of relieving orders given by Telangana companies and arrange salaries for the employees. He also requested the committee for directions to facilitate continuation of services of employees from January 5, 2020. The employees have to be relieved  only after getting reposting orders from AP power utilities in future, he appealed.