Sambalpur: The All Odisha Power Engineers' Federation has urged the state government to issue a white paper on the state affairs of power distribution giving emphasis from 1999 to 2017.
After the federation's executive body meeting here on Thursday, chairman Biswaranjan Mishra and secretary general Brahma Prakash Paital said the power distribution sector was totally in "a shambles" due to the government apathy.
They suggested that there should be formation of one distribution corporation by amalgamation of four companies and eventually formation of one power corporation by combining generation, transmission and distributions, according to the model adopted by Kerala and Himachal Pradesh.
Mishra said the distribution sector had experienced many "experimentation and shock therapy" in the name of privatisation and franchise. But, the result has been from bad to worse. The sector has found many turmoils since disintegration of the distribution companies in 1999 and privation of four Discoms in 1999, he alleged.
"It is a pity that regulator has become manager. It was unable to pay power purchase cost, maintain line and sub-stations, resulting in power failure. Though the consumer strength has increased 3.5 times during this period, the technical manpower has reduced to nearly one third resulting in poor quality of service," said Mishra.
"To save the power sector from financial collapse, we should learn from the failure of Odisha and other states to take remedial measures."
The federation demanded regularisation of contractual engineers, immediate recruitment of engineers and technicians, introduction of health insurance scheme among others.