Sans safety gear, PSPCL contract staff putting lives on the line daily
Around 5,500 linemen and assistant linesmen are employed as complaint-handling bikes (CHB) and complaint-handling wagons (CHW) by the PSPCL. The remuneration for a CHB is ₹13,700 monthly and a CHW gets ₹11,700 a month.
Thousands of contractual linesmen in Punjab continue to work in precarious conditions for the Punjab State Power Corporation Limited (PSPCL) sans safety equipment.
Around 5,500 linemen and assistant linesmen are employed as complaint-handling bikes (CHB) and complaint-handling wagons (CHW) by the PSPCL. The remuneration for a CHB is ₹13,700 monthly and a CHW gets ₹11,700 a month.
According to the Powercom and Transco Contract Employees’ Union, over 200 outsourced employees have died in the last five years due to inadequate safety measures and unsafe working conditions. Union leader Balhar Singh attributed these deaths to poor quality of safety gear and lack of safety equipment.
On April 20 this year, Raj Kumar, a 22-year-old CHB worker in Jalandhar, suffered an electric shock. “My hand and back got burned. I’ve had two major surgeries, including one on my spine. I am seeking financial help from the government,” Kumar said.
In another incident in Jalandhar, a 31-year-old contractual lineman died of electrocution on August 6. Sunny was repairing a transformer when he got electrocuted.
His sister, Poonam Devi, said Sunny wasn’t wearing the required safety gear. “The government must ensure that contractors provide proper safety equipment to the workers,” she added.
Inderpreet Singh, 25, a contractual lineman for the PSPCL, said the work assigned to him includes maintaining electric poles, transformers and 11KV lines without any safety gears.
Congress MLA Avtar Singh raised the issue in the recently concluded Punjab Vidhan Sabha session and said: “PSPCL pays contractors ₹54,000 for every three CHB linesmen, yet the contractors only pay ₹39,000 to the employees.”
Aam Aadmi Party MLA, Manvinder Singh Giaspura, also echoed the plight of the workers. “Over 700 contractual linesmen have died in the last three years. These are preventable deaths. These deaths are happening because contractors fail to provide necessary safety gear to them,” he said.
Giaspura has also demanded life insurance worth ₹1 crore for these workers. Chief managing director Baldev Sran was not available for comments on the issue.
A PSPCL official, pleading anonymity, stated that ex-gratia payments for the families of deceased contractual employees have been increased from ₹10 lakh to ₹20 lakh, and an insurance claim of ₹10 lakh has been introduced for them.
Punjab power minister Harbhajan Singh ETO when asked about the availability of safety gear to contractual linemen by Congress legislator Avtar Singh during the recent Vidhan Sabha session said that CHB and CHW (contractual linesmen) were provided the safety gear, and directions were being issued to contractual employees to wear safety gear during work.