The cash-strapped Meghalaya Energy Corporation Limited (MeECL) management has waded into another major controversy with reported plans to outsource its manpower requirements to a private company for ten years.
Sources said that the MeECL chairman and managing director (CMD) has already received a proposal titled “Techno-commercial proposal for maintenance and operation of the electric sub stations” from Noida-based private company called Broadcast Engineering Consultants India Limited (BECIL) which is hoping to take over the job in the entire State.
The MeECL project details titled “Technical proposal to carry out operation and maintenance of the existing and upcoming 132 kV/33 kV and 33/11 kV (already commissioned or are in various stages of construction) for uninterrupted electricity supply in the respective area of Meghalaya Power Distribution Corporation Limited (MePDCL)” outlines the range of work expected from the contractor.
The proposal sent by BECIL is currently being scrutinised by the CMD who has passed it on to the top bosses and chief engineers of the subsidiary corporations under the MeECL including the Meghalaya Power Transmission Corporation Limited (MePTCL) which are supposed to second it, said sources.
The contract includes every task that is required to maintain and operate a substation from site engineers and supervisors to look after all the technical details including handling the control room to workforce for keeping the yard of the sub-station “neat and clean” and even “removing grass from time to time.”
“Now they are planning to outsource everything, including manpower. The future is very bleak for our youth as the MeECL has the potential to employ many upcoming job seekers of our State,” said an insider.
A few days back, Power Minister James K. Sangma had maintained that the State reservation policy for locals is not required to be implemented in contract based jobs.
“This is nothing but privatisation by stealth,” said another MeECL worker who informed that since the employees were set against the State government’s plans to privatise the corporation, the government were now taking these “deceitful” steps to hand over the MeECL to private parties piece by piece.
Employees also alleged that the private company (BECIL) seems to have been handpicked by the top bosses of MeECL.
Stating that this is illegal and cannot be accepted, the employees asked, “Was there a tender called for this outsourcing contract?
“As if our own workforce cannot handle all these jobs provided the bosses do not try to make a fast buck at every turn” accused another old timer working in the MeECL.
