No end to 'power' struggle in KSEB, officers' association to intensify stir

Thiruvananthapuram: The Kerala State Electricity Board Limited (KSEBL) is in the midst of a face-off between the management and powerful employee unions.

KSEB Chairman and Managing Director (CMD) B Ashok has expressed his willingness to hold discussions with the agitating engineers amid the KSEB Officers' Association's plan to start an indefinite "satyagraha" in front of the KSEB headquarters from Monday against the "dictatorial rule" of the management.

The chairman said that a solution would be found after holding discussions with the striking associations. He, however, cautioned that the attitude of the associations defaming the chairman would affect the credibility of the KSEB.

However, KSEB Officers' Association president A G Suresh Kumar, who was suspended from service on disciplinary grounds, said that they did not get an invitation for conciliatory talks. He further said that it was not through the media that the offer of talks should be extended.

He said that they would hold talks with Electricity Minister K Krishnan Kutty on April 12 if the latter was willing for such a meeting.

Both parties unrelenting

With Saturday and Sunday being holidays, the internal struggle in the KSEB is set to resume from Monday, with the KSEB management and the pro-CPM engineers' association in no mood to relent.

The vigilance wing of the KSEB is conducting a probe against those who entered forcibly into the board room at the headquarters and created a ruckus. An attempt is on to identify the culprits with the help of CCTV footage. Once the report of the vigilance officer is received, the management is planning to take action against the rest of the people involved in the ruckus.

The KSEB management has also announced that action would be taken against the officers who would take part in the agitation to be held from Monday.

Meanwhile, the association is planning to form a panel to support the agitation on April 12 and then devise various agitation modes, including that of laying siege to the KSEB headquarters.

General secretary suspended

Close on the heels of the suspension of Suresh Kumar, Association general secretary B Harikumar was also suspended from service.

He received the suspension letter on Friday afternoon. Harikumar is an assistant executive engineer at the project monitoring wing of the KSEB in Ernakulam.

Harikumar was suspended on April 5, the same date on which Suresh Kumar was suspended. All the charges contained in the suspension memo given to Suresh Kumar were there in the suspension letter given to Harikumar. The additional charge slapped on Sureshkumar was that of giving an objectionable interview to Manorama News.

HC directive to reinstate engineer

The Kerala High Court on Friday asked the KSEB CMD to take a decision on reinstating the suspended executive engineer of the Thiruvananthapuram electrical division, Jasmine Babu within five days.

She was suspended from the service on March 22 on charges of taking leave without getting prior permission from the higher-ups.