'Energy dept to get 10,000 new staff in 2016-17'

Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Tuesday said 10,000 employees would be added to the Energy department in the financial year 2016-17. He was speaking at the closing ceremony of the training programme conducted for new recruits, organised by Karnataka Power Transmission Corporation Limited and Bescom.

On the occasion, new walkie-talkie sets and uniforms for officials were released. The walkie-talkie sets and mobile phones will be given to all engineers for faster delivery of services.

Siddaramaiah said, 13,000 people were newly recruited into the department only on the basis of merit. Of these, 4,000 will join Bescom.

One crore consumers
“There is a need to increase employment at all levels as the number of consumers is also increasing at a rapid pace. Bescom already has over one crore consumers,” the chief minister said. He said this was the biggest recruitment process in the state.

Siddaramaiah admitted that the government did not have the capability to give 24-hour electricity supply to all citizens, including farmers. But, it was striving to become self-sufficient.

7-hour power supply
The government had assured farmers of seven-hour power supply to irrigation pumpsets, the energy department and all officials should ensure that this is provided, the chief minister said.

Energy Minister D K Shivakumar, who was present on the occasion, said that KPTCL and Bescom were undertaking projects worth Rs 4,000 crore to improve the power sector. Efforts were on to make all taluks self-sufficient in electricity by installing 20-MW solar panels. This was being done as more thermal plants cannot be set up, the minister said.