The Kerala State Electricity Board Limited is one government undertaking where powerful trade unions rule the roost.
Such is the sway of the unions that they even threaten ministers. The moment a political party or front comes to power, their trade unions will try to remote control the KSEB. They will take a final call on the purchase deals. They will decide on the salary hike of the staff. They will prepare the transfer list of employees and execute it.
They will collect crores of rupees as funds from the engineers and employees as reward for working out salary revision. The political party to which unions are affiliated will be kept in good humour by giving a portion of the money collected. Later, the same union leaders become the private secretaries of ministers. Later, they start controlling the ministers. Without their consent, nothing will happen in the KSEB.
WHAT LED TO THE LATEST AGITATION?
The Left unions and officers' associations staged a strike before the KSEB headquarters last week mainly in protest against the decision to entrust the State Industrial Security Force (SISF) with the security of the main KSEB offices, including the headquarters Vydyuthi Bhavan. Till now, the security at the main office was manned by the armed police and ex-military personnel. After the SISF took over, only those who were having passes were allowed to enter the main office premises. Though the chairman claimed that such a security cover was introduced to give foolproof protection to the sensitive sections like the Data Centre, the union leaders felt that such an arrangement was made to curb their free movement inside the office.
The agitation finally ended with both the sides not getting a full victory. It was decided to partially continue with the SISF's security cover in sensitive installations inside the main office. But the demand made by the union leaders for removing Ashok from the post of the KSEB chairman did not succeed as the Electricity Minister K Krishnan Kutty stood solidly behind him.
UNION LEADER'S BID TO BROWBEAT MINISTER
The present Electricity Minister is not one to be cowed down by belligerent labour leaders. He is an accomplished farmer and an ace shooter too. Not many know that he is a Rifle Club member. He once shot down an elephant which ran amok in Chittur in Palakkad district. But will he be able to rein in union leaders in the KSEB in the long run?
A union leader recently visited the Electricity Minister's office with the demand that certain reforms initiated by the chairman B Ashok be shelved. When pressure tactics failed, the enraged union leader started speaking in a threatening tone to the minister. But the leader had to leave the place in a huff as the minister told him unequivocally that he had seen many unions and he knew how to handle it. Some of the members of the Minister's personal staff were witnesses to the incident.
HOW SMART LEADERS TAMED UNIONS
Now, a flashback to the 1987-1991 era. It was the time when an efficient Electricity Minister and a very talented chairman were at the KSEB helm. The minister was T Shivadasa Menon and the chairman was N Kaleeswaran, IAS. Kaleeswaran was given the task to clean up the KSEB which was messed up by the unions. Menon as Minister gave him full backing.
Just like what they do now, the union leaders then accused the KSEB chairman of adopting a dictatorial attitude. The Minister told the media then: "Kaleeswaran was brought in to cleanise KSEB. The attempt is to turn the KSEB into a profitable organisation and also to make Kerala self-reliant in the power sector." While quoting the late Chinese Communist Party leader Deng Xiaoping, he further said, "It doesn't matter whether the cat is white or black as long as it catches mice."
Kaleeswaran was very sharp-minded. On one day, he was presiding over a meeting of the regional-level Superintendent Engineers at the board headquarters. A media person came to meet him. Since the meeting was about to end, Kaleeswaran gestured to the journalist to occupy a seat at the conference hall. The chairman then asked the meeting why there was delay in erecting electric lines at many parts of Kozhikode district. The engineer concerned gave a knee-jerk reaction by saying that there was not enough stock of cables there and the work would be completed as per the availability of material. Suddenly, Kaleeswaran started reading from a paper the complete stock availability of cables at the KSEB in Kozhikode. The chairman did his homework as he anticipated that the official would say some lame excuses and then get away without doing the work properly. Just remember that he did this well before the age of office computerisation and the spread of the internet.
There is another story about his astuteness. One day, he told a union leader, who came to his cabin to give him advice, "I will set everything right. Do one thing. Tell the minister to give me a posting at the Secretariat. Thereafter, you occupy this chair." The grapevine is that the union leader never dared to enter the room of the chairman after the episode.
Though Kaleeswaran did not tolerate any kind of external interference in his work, mental tensions might have taken a heavy toll on his health. He died due to a heart attack while being the KSEB chairman.
Another efficient and upright IAS officer, who as the KSEB chairman faced many unpleasant situations and undue pressures, died due to cardiac arrest while on duty at his cabin in the Secretariat. This had led to a controversy.
After the tenure of Kaleeswaran, many ministers and chairmen, both efficient and incapable, ruled the power utility during the last 30 years. Those who were really capable could withstand to some extent the pressure exerted by the unions. Others became puppets of the union leaders.
