MeECL engineers protest against ‘arbitrary’ suspension of a colleague, demands institution of an independent inquiry commission

Syllad | The Rising MeghalayaAugust 11, 2020

Engineers of the Meghalaya Energy Corporation Limited (MeECL) on Tuesday staged a protest against the suspension of a Resident Engineer of the Myntdu Leshka Hydro Electric Project (MLHEP) stage-1 power station, ML Pohshna.

The protest called by the MeECL Engineers’ Association, was participated by engineers in the premises of the respective offices, substations and power stations across the state, during lunchbreak amid the government’s prohibitory order against strikes.

In Shillong, Jowai and Myntdu Leshka Hydro Electric Project as a mark of the first phase of protest, engineers were seen wearing black badges, carrying placards and displaying banners terming the suspension order against Pohshna as ‘unjust’ and ‘arbitrary’.

The association has strongly demanded the authority concerned to immediately revoke the suspension order failing which it would be compelled to approach the Meghalaya High Court for its intervention.

“…the authority should revoke the said suspension order as the concerned officer was never given a chance to represent himself before passing of the said order, else the Association may have no other choice but to approach the High Court to issue a writ of Mandamus,” A letter submitted by the association general secretary MF Mawlieh to the Chairman cum Managing Director (CMD), MeECL, A Nikhla.

“The Association would also like to stress on the fact that the concerned officer should be reinstated back with honor, and an independent inquiry commission should be formed to look into the matter in question before passing any suspension order,” the letter also stated.

After receiving a representation from Pohshna, the association said that it has observed that the suspension of the officer has been attributed to the failure of the two generator transformers that occurred on July 21 and 26 at MLHEP, Suchen.

“The transformer that failed on July 26 had a past history of failures, and has been repaired several times by the original transformer manufacturer at site during which the transformer has not been subjected to Impulse and High Voltage test as per prevailing Standards,” it said.

The association said that the repaired transformer has been kept as spare and is stil under liability/warranty period adding that after the failure of one transformer on July 21, the spare transformer, before putting into service on July 25, was subjected to various tests and measurements as per the Standard Operating Procedures and the parameters were found to be satisfactory.

It also added that after observing all formalities and obtaining necessary clearances from the appropriate Authority, the officer concerned charged the transformer and successfully synchronized it to the Grid. After synchronizing to the Grid, the transformer was operating satisfactorily for more than twelve hours at maximum load.

“Now, from the above it can be said that since the transformer was in operation for many hours, its failure was purely an unforeseen incident which could be attributed to many external factors viz, lightning surges, internal winding failures, real time loading etc which can be determined only after proper investigations. Hence, to conclude that there were lapses in responsibility and negligence of duty on the part of the officer is unjustified. Thus, his suspension order is uncalled for and perhaps might have been served arbitrarily in haste without ascertaining the facts,” the association stated.