GUWAHATI, June 9 ? At the recently-held conference of Power Ministers of the north-eastern States, the chairman-cum-managing director of the North Eastern Electrical Power Corporation (NEEPCO) received kudos for serving the interests of the region and being the only Central PSU where 90 per cent of the employees belonged to the backward region. But the actions, decisions and policies adopted by the present CMD, SC Sharma, since he took over in November last year, have raised serious doubts on whether the NEEPCO is actually serving the interests of the region.
Undoubtedly, the NEEPCO is the mainstay for the power requirements of the region by meeting almost 50 per cent of the demands. But the recent happenings in the power giant of the region paints a gloomy future for the PSU. Immediately after Sharma joined his new assignment, the NEEPCO went on a spending spree purchasing two Maruti Esteem cars, one for his movement in Shillong, where the PSU headquarters are located and the other at Delhi, in violation of board resolution in respect of purchase of vehicles. It is worth mentioning that the PSU has stopped buying vehicles and adopted the policy of hiring vehicles since the last three years.
Huge expenditures have been incurred on renovation of his office chambers at Shillong and Delhi, besides purchase of furniture. A VIP transit camp has been set up at Shillong in addition to the existing guest house. This has resulted in an additional recurring expenditure of Rs 50,000 monthly, over and above the establishment and overhead costs. Needless to mention, the transit camp is being exclusively used by the CMD. The CMD is also availing a self-leased accommodation at New Delhi though the NEEPCO has a well-furnished guest house there. The NEEPCO has acquired another VIP guest house at Beltola in Guwahati. To cater to the lavish life-style of the CMD, the NEEPCO has also hired two Maruti Gypsys for ?security escort duty? at Shillong and Delhi.
Moreover, for reasons unknown, the CMD chose to print the NEEPCO calendar at a printing firm located at Bhopal in Madhya Pradesh. Unbelievable but true is the expenditure of Rs 1.5 lakh incurred by the CMD on a day?s visit to Assam gas-based power project at Kathalguri, recently. Though the place is well-connected by road, rail and air, he desired to hire a helicopter!
At a time when the Ministry of Power has refused to revise the salary of the employees of the NEEPCO for poor financial performance, the lavish lifestyle of the CMD has raised suspicions as to his motive. More worrisome is the attempt of the CMD to employ people of his choice at various levels with total disregard to the norms of employment. On his very first day in office, he appointed a driver though there is a surplus of drivers in NEEPCO following the PSU?s decision to hire vehicles from outside.
Several other appointments have been made by recruiting people from outside the region without informing the local employment exchanges. Inside sources revealed that plans are afoot to systematically deprive the qualified unemployed youth of the region by bringing in people from outside the region. A sinister move has also been made to deprive the local officers from due promotional avenues by constituting a medical board.
Under the new rules, all senior managers up to executive director level will have to undergo medical tests ostensibly to measure their physical fitness. Surprisingly, however, the yardsticks of physical fitness have not been announced nor the results of the tests given. The developments have given rise to the fear that the CMD is bent on making the PSU his personal fiefdom and may succeed in his designs unless timely steps are taken by the concerned authorities.