Jammu and Kashmir Power Employees and Engineers Coordination Committee (JKPEECC) on Wednesday held multiple rounds of talks to end the stalemate but Managing Director remained adamant on his ‘illegitimate’ suspensions and decision to withhold salaries on account of Surya Ghar performances.
JKPEECC, as per a statement issued, put a Strong resentment Before Managing Director over his Order No’s. 187-192 of MD/JPDCL of 2026 dated 06.08.2026 placing officers/officials under suspension despite the factual record demonstrates action taken against defaulters and does not disclose any misconduct on part of the employees.
The JKPEECC in a strong words condemned the arbitrary and illegitimate action on part of Managing Director JPDCL to suspend the officers/officials of Power Development Department and justifying it through concealment of important Action Taken record before the Higher authorities.
Due to the failure of MD JPDCL to address the legitimate issues, the J&K Power Employees and Engineers have been constrained to sit on protest from 13th AUG 2026 till the matter is resolved, and responsibility of such situation shall purely be of the management of JPDCL.
The act of the Managing Director suffers from malice and without any technical report on fixing of responsibility for an act of an electricity user who is an habitual offender as per the ground reports of the inspecting agencies that have inspected such areas from time to time. In fact without perusing the available record in totality, Engineers and officials have been made scape goats. JKPEECC demands immediate revocation of the suspension orders on the basis of the Action taken reports submitted by the concerned Chief Engineer Distribution and Superintending Engineer O&M Circle-I in the instant case vide Chief Engineer & Superintending Engineer, O&M Circle, JPDCL, Jammu letter No. SE-J/O&M/4062-64 dated 25.06.2026 & 3/07/2026 and 19.07.2026.However it is astonishing to note that Managing Director chooses to conceal this important action taken report submitted by the Technical heads of the Hierarchy and push for a case , that is totally unwarranted.
The fact remains that The record supplied to JKEEGA demonstrates that the matter was not ignored by the field establishment.
The communications reveal action at several levels even before the inspections by the Special Enforcement Team, intimation to register FIR against same list of consumers of that area has been on record since 2024, detection of unauthorised use/theft, assessment and imposition of penalties, disconnection of unauthorised supplies, removal of illegal service connections, recovery proceedings, repeated enforcement drives, requests for registration of FIRs, interaction with Police authorities, joint inspections with Police, transfer of the concerned Meter Reader, directions for intensified inspections, strengthening of post-disconnection monitoring; and action against habitual offenders.
Therefore, the basic premise that recurrence of theft necessarily demonstrates failure of the Engineers/officials is not borne out by the record. Further the situation is so grim that nearly 30000 smart meters in JPDCL are damaged or non-communicating resulting in lack of proper billing of such consumers, including the fact that due to non-replacement of such smart meters by the Project implementing agency i.e REC and its contractors Techno, Anvil and Genus, in proportion to the damage rate, has resulted in a big chaos for the billing engineers of JPDCL. The bills as per the JERC , for damaged meter can be assessed for three months only on average demand/usage charge basis. However worthy Managing Director has not been able to prevail on these central agencies to replace the meters and there are damaged meters of 2023 which are also not replaced as on date, leading to the meters having been bypassed for supplying power to consumers by REC/its contractors only. The responsibility needs to be fixed of REC/ GENUS/ANVIL/TECHNO for causing loss of revenue to JPDCL which is also reflecting poorly on our performance. JKPEECC seeks immediate accountability for the damaged/non communicating 25000 smart meters Secondly Immediate action be taken for registration of FIRs in all pending cases of electricity theft where the requisite cases have already been submitted by the concerned SDOs to the respective Police Stations/SHOs. The Association understands that approximately 2,000 such cases are awaiting registration.
If Engineers and officials are being held accountable for theft, the statutory enforcement mechanism must simultaneously be made functional. Further despite hard work, for reducing AT&C losses in JAMMU region to below 30%, instead of accolades, suspension orders are being issued against our officers and officials.
The Salary of Engineers and officials in various divisions/sub divisions of JPDCL has been withheld since last two months on account of not being able to meet the targets set by JPDCL for solar installations.
In an emergency General Council meeting of JKEEGA and other Unions of JKPDD post the failure of meeting held with MD JPDCL on the issues, it was decided that sufficient time was given to the Managing Director JPDCL to withdraw the Suspension orders on immediate basis, register FIR against the habitual offenders involved in Electricity theft cases on basis of such complaint letters written by SDOs to SHOs, take penal action against the Smart metering project implementing agencies for their failure to replace the damaged smart meters for period even exceeding twenty four months, frame and officially circulate SOPs for the registration of FIRs by the police authorities on the reports of theft submitted to them by SDOs and circulate SOPs for the instructions on billing of such consumers who continue to run the power through damaged meters bypassing the meters, due to non-replacement within three months of such damage.
Further the salary of all officers/officials withheld on account of relatively lesser progress in SOLAR Ghar scheme must be immediately released. Due to failure of MD JPDCL to address the legitimate issues, the J&K Power Employees and Engineers have been constrained to sit on protest from 13th AUG 2026, till the matter is resolved and responsibility of such situation shall purely be of the management of JPDCL.
JKPEECC has appealed to the Chief Minister and worthy Financial Commissioner (ACS) JKPDD for kind intervention in the matter so that the issue projected is resolved without further loss of precious time.
