AP implements Dharmadhikari panel report on division of employees in power companies

Putting an end to the long-pending litigation between Andhra Pradesh and Telangana power utilities, the AP government has implemented the Justice DM Dharmadhikari Committee report by issuing posting orders to employees who have been relieved from Telangana power utilities.

APGenco, APTransco and AP Discoms issued orders allocating 536 employees from Telangana power companies. While APGenco admitted 245 employees, APTransco issued orders to 148, and the Discoms inducted 143 employees as per the recommendations of the one-man committee.

Since APGenco, Transco and Discoms should be reimbursed ₹131 crore by the corresponding Telangana power companies towards the difference of these amounts released so far, this amount is now being claimed.

These employees were being paid salaries and pensions as per the interim orders of the Dharmadhikari Committee.

No financial burden

The division of employees, which had been pending from 2015 after AP was bifurcated, ended without any additional financial burden to any of the commercial entities in both States.

The committee gave its final report on December 26, 2019, and allotted 655 employees out of the 1,157 that were unilaterally relieved from Telangana utilities to AP utilities.

The AP utilities opposed this and filed a petition in Supreme Court, stating that these 655 are in addition to the threshold limit. After detailed hearings at Delhi, the one-man committee gave a supplementary report on March 11, allotting another 655 employees from AP to Telangana, so as to balance the allocation and to maintain financial neutrality in all respects.

Many employees and the Telangana power companies opposed the allocation and filed petitions in the Supreme Court. The committee considered individual grievances without disturbing the ratios and the limits fixed for both States – total 3,552 to AP and 2,550 to Telangana – as per the AP Reorganisation Act, 2014.

Finally, the concluding report corrected the lists, and all grievances raised before the committee were addressed and redressed.

“Every employee cannot be individually satisfied when the allocation is being done after 6 years of State bifurcation and, as a whole, the reports are hailed as highly reasonable and that they have to be implemented as the final orders of the Supreme Court,” said a representative of power utilities.

According to officials, financial neutrality on both sides was taken as the underlying principle for the bifurcation of assets, and the same principle is given significance in the committee’s reports for allocation of employees.

The provisions of State Reorganisation Act were dealt in detail by the committee in formulating the final modalities for effecting this allocation.