42 pc staff shortage in Mescom

'Each lineman handles 1,354 customers and 49.84 km of lines'

Mescom, the electricity supplying company which supplies power to Dakshina Kannada, Udupi, Chikmagalur and Shimoga districts has been facing 42 per cent shortage of staff, of which, there is massive vacancies of around 50 per cent lying vacant in the linemen category —who are considered as foot soliders of the Mescom.

  Out of the total sanctioned posts of 6,406 staff, a total of 2,699 vacancies are lying vacant. 

The shortage of linemen has been affecting the services offered by the Mescom including responding to the complaints and rectifying the problems. In fact, during the KERC hearing on revision of tariff recently, the members of the public from Chikmagalur and Shimoga, in particular, complained of dangling wires following falling of branches on it and the Mescom’s failure to fix the same. 

Mescom MD M Govindappa said that out of 2,965 posts for linemen, around 1,492 are vacant. Linemen and assistant linemen engage in arranging power supply to the new consumers, attending complaints, attending transformer faults, line maintenance work such as tree trimming, replacement of damaged insulators, conductors, poles, stringing of loose spans, providing intermediate poles, repairs and so on. 

While a lineman has to see an average of 673 customers or 24.76 km of low tension wires, the current situation sees linemen handling 1,354 customers and nearly 49.84 km of lines. 

The lineman has to attend an average of 19.35 km HT line instead of 9.56 km line and 30 distribution transformer centres instead of 15. The sanctioned post of linemen per section office is 16. However, there are only eight linemen at present. 

The sanctioned post of Senior Executive Engineer/Executive Engineer and Assistant Executive Engineer is 163. However, 12 posts are lying vacant, thus facing seven per cent shortage. The sanctioned post of CA/DCA/AO is 49. In reality, six posts are lying vacant. A total of 139 posts of Assistant Engineers and Junior Engineers are lying vacant in the Mescom. The total sanctioned posts is 407. 

About 44 per cent of AAOs/Senior Assistants are lying vacant. The total sanctioned posts are 209. Out of 1,398 sanctioned posts of MRs, mechanics and operators, 431 are vacant. 

The total number of sanctiond posts of Assistants and Junior Assistants is 558 and the vacant posts is 184. The sanctioned posts of PS, driver, attenders and sweepers is 657 and there are vacancies of 344 posts. 

The Mescom MD said that there is a need to recruit staff to provide quality service to the customers. The State government has already initiated measures in this regard and 364 linemen will be recruited in May. The applications have already been invited and the last date is over.  

The Mescom has 447 11-kv feeders in rural areas and 258 11-kv feeders in urban areas. The monthly average sale of electricity is 326.37 million units.