Report of Indian Institute of Public Administration ... - Ministry of Power

Rajasthan
in such meetings were invariably achieved, rather exceeded. In general, the morale of
the staff at all levels was very high.
Incidentally even trade union problems were also resolved through such
continuous dialogue and collective decision-making. No wonder, when the RSEB
was restructured into five companies, there was not even a single day’s strike. The
resistance, which was often noticed in other States, did not surface in Rajasthan.
During the pre-restructuring period, the officers and staff of all the three wings had
close coordination but now the companies being totally separate, the spirit of mutual
support is lacking and this creates problems of coordination. The State Government
has now realised this and, to bring about better coordination, the CMDs of the
DISCOMs have been designated as MDs and the CMD of TRANSCO has been made
Chairman of all the three DISCOMs. However, the watertight barriers still exist
between the companies.
In many States like Haryana, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Karnataka, etc., even
after restructuring, the seniority of the officers was kept common which provides
adequate flexibility in the deployment of officers from time to time but that
flexibility is no more available in Rajasthan. One company may be over staffed and
another company may be under staffed but surplus officers of one company cannot be
deployed in another company.
The frequent transfers of officers is also quite demoralising. The Jaipur DISCOM is
having its fifth MD since 2001 and so also the Ajmer DISCOM. Jodhpur DISCOM
too has had three MDs since 2001. With such frequent changes, there is no stability
and instead of concentrating on reforms, the MDs are very often concerned about their
own tenures. The least that can be done is to provide a minimum tenure of five years
for the MDs, which should be curtailed only in exceptional cases.
Frequent change of MDs has also led to decline in performance of the utilities. Power
sector is a highly specialised subject. If IAS officers are posted as MDs, they should
have reasonably long tenures so that they can closely grasp the problems of the power
sector. But with frequent changes, by the time an officer picks up the basic issues, he
is shifted elsewhere and the next officer has again to start from scratch. Officers
posted in the power sector cannot afford to remain mere generalists. They will have to
acquire some sort of specialisation and that is possible only through longer tenures.
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