Editor,
The information and documents received through RTI from MeECL revealed that the ASEB and MeSEB were created under the same Indian Electricity Act. The MeSEB adopted the Service Rules of ASEB and MeECL also adopted the Service Rules of MeSEB in which the Secretariat Office of ASEB/MeSEB comprise of the General Administration, Personnel Wing and the Legal Cell. The officers were posted against each Wing as per the required qualifications, i.e. for General Administration – Graduate in Arts/Science/Commerce, Personnel Wing by officers with an M.A degree in Personnel Management or MSW with Degree in Law and for the Legal Cell a Graduate with Degree in Law. The RTI revealed that the Personnel Wing of MeSEB was headed by the Personnel Officer/Chief Personnel Officer/Deputy Secretary (Personnel)/Joint Secretary (Personnel) who were having the requisite qualifications of M.A. with Degree in Personnel Management and MSW with Degree in Law. These officers were dealing with and looking after the services of all MeSEB employees, i.e. for Grade I, II, III & IV employees including recruitments of officers/staff. But since a few years ago until this date after retirement of the CPO/DS/JS (Personnel) no officer has been appointed for the Personnel Wing. The services of the Officers of the Personnel Wing were not incorporated in the main Service Rules except the for the post of Chief Personnel Officer. The educational qualification of the officer of this Wing was reduced from M.A. with Degree in Personnel Management or MSW with LL.B. to a mere Graduate of general stream of B.A./B.Sc./B.Com equivalent to the qualifications of the officers/staff of General Administration and these officers of the General Administration are allowed to function like the Personnel Officer/Chief Personnel Officer/Deputy Secretary(Personnel)/Joint Secretary(Personnel) in disguise because of lack of requisite qualifications or because they are under-qualified.
If the MeSEB/MeECL appointed officers/staff for different categories of posts according to their qualifications and subjects taken are required for relevant posts like Engineering, Accounts etc., as reflected in the MeSEB/MeECL advertisements issued from time to time, why not for Personnel Wing also? If the under-qualified officers are still allowed to continue without the requisite qualifications (M.A. with Degree in Personnel Management or MSW with Degree in Law) it means that they are allowed to play games with the valuable services of thousands of employees of MeSEB/MeECL which is not acceptable to the educated youths. The MeSEB/MeECL’s Unions and the NGOs are requested to see that qualified officers are appointed immediately in the interests of thousands of employees and the smooth functioning of MeSEB/MeECL as a whole.
The RTI documents further revealed that the Recruitment Cell was not created by the MeSEB/MeECL and few selected officers/staff with ulterior motives were posted in the Cell. The Conveners without the requisite qualifications for Personnel Wing are always allowed to sit with the Members of the Selection Committees, to interview candidates and to give marks to them. This is highly irregular. All such interviews should be scrapped by the authorities concerned. They should reschedule the interviews and conduct them in a fair and transparent manner.
Yours etc.,
Kynpham Khongbri
Shillong-8