Employees, engineers and pensioners of the Himachal Pradesh State Electricity Board (HPSEB) held a protest outside the Himachal Pradesh assembly in Shimla on Wednesday, demanding restoration of the Old Pension Scheme (OPS), fresh recruitment and settlement of pending financial and retirement benefits.
Along with this, recruitment in the board and several other issues are among our key demands. “Old pension has been given in all sectors of the state, but electricity board employees have been deprived of it. “There used to be around 43,000 employees in the electricity board, but today, the number has come down to only around 13,000. In addition, there are approximately 3,000 outsourced employees. Verma claimed that approximately 11,500 posts are currently vacant in the electricity board and demanded their immediate filling to ensure better services to consumers across Himachal Pradesh. The CCS Pension Rules, 1972, were implemented in the government, and the same rules were implemented in the electricity board in 1974. Amendments made to these rules since 2003 were also implemented in the board, including the first amendment in 2003. However, the amendment relating to restoration of the OPS made in 2023 has not been implemented in the electricity board,” Verma said.
He said the strength of the electricity board’s workforce had declined drastically over the years. We can say that the workforce has been reduced to around one-third of what it used to be,” he said. Verma said electricity board employees had been excluded from the restoration of OPS despite its implementation in other sectors of the state government.
In his address, co-convenor of the Joint Action Committee, HPSEB Employees and Engineers Front, Hiralal Verma, said “Today, electricity employees, pensioners and engineers from across the state have gathered here to demand the implementation of the OPS in the electricity board.
