Engineers and employees of the Meghalaya Energy Corporation Ltd (MeECL) have given the management 10 days’ time to reinstate suspended officer H Jyrwa failing which they will launch further agitations.
PK Shullet, President of the MeECL Engineers Association (MEA) said that the body considers the suspension to be “unwarranted”.
Stating that the Jyrwa has served the company for more than 30 years in various capacities and is known as an upright person with integrity and impeccable character, he said the suspension order is a clear intention to tarnish the image of a clean and honest officer and as a warning to others who refuse to bend the rules at the management’s whims and fancies to facilitate irregularities.
Jyrwa is a Superintending Engineer (Energy Management) and was suspended by the management on February 17 for negligence and causing loss to the organisation.
Shullet said that the MEA observed that the post of Superintending Engineer (Energy Management) requires expert knowledge and should be occupied by one who is conversant with the intricacies of power management, power purchase, power banking and demand scheduling.
“In simple terms the post forecasts the demand of power required by the entire state and accordingly facilitates the power flow so that any shortfall in power is taken care of and no district of the state is left in darkness. The officers posted in this capacity must therefore be given special training in order for him/her to be able to apprehend and adopt strategies in real time marketing of power purchase and power selling,” he said, adding that the management has ignored the importance of giving officers in this role the right exposure and training to handle the post.
Starting that the MEA strongly feels that to hold an officer accountable for not performing his duties diligently when the management have failed to provide the necessary tools for the officer to function, is unjustified, he said that the MEA therefore feels that the charge levied against the officer is a tactical move of the management to absolve itself of its own shortcomings.
He added that the MEA also has apprehensions that gross mismanagements could be placed on the shoulder of any upright officer or individual that the management intent to.
