Chennai: A serious controversy has erupted over the process of recruitment of 375 assistant engineers in the state electricity board with allegations made regarding the manner in which the written tests were conducted and the interviews scheduled during March 13-18 at a star hotel on Chennai outskirts.
The CITU-affiliated Central Organisation of Tamil Nadu Electricity Employees (COTEE) at the Tangedco, in a statement here on Friday accused the board of ignoring the case pending in the high court challenging the lack of transparency in the conduct of the written test for the assistant engineers. Also, the board had now shifted the interview from Vijay Park Hotel near Koyambedu to Kalyan Hometel hotel in Vandalur outside the city limits only to escape from the election code that has come into operation following the notification of the RK Nagar bypoll, the union said.
“If the board goes ahead with the interviews for the recruitment, that would amount to violating the election code and also ignoring the fact that there is a case pending in the court”, the union warned.
PMK founder Dr S. Ramadoss went a step further and alleged that the interviews were being held at a star hotel only to indulge in corrupt practices and facilitating the free movement of brokers and flow of money as bribes. When the electricity board has a sprawling office complex in the centre of Chennai, with facilities for even holding large conferences and with CCTV cameras to ensure fool-proof recruitment process, where was the need to hold the interviews at a star hotel and that too when the electricity board was drowning in debts, Dr Ramadoss asked.
“The electricity board, which is struggling with a debt burden of over one lakh crore rupees, has been incurring annual losses amounting to 12000-15000 crore rupees”, the PMK chief said, adding that the board had hiked electricity charges twice in the last five years to stay afloat. “Where is the need to splurge money by holding interviews in star hotel when the board does not have the funds for new electricity projects?” he asked.
