Tainted engineer may head TNEB firm August 4th, 2010 DC Correspondent

Tainted engineer may head TNEB firm
August 4th, 2010
DC Correspondent
Aug. 3: An engineer indicted in connection with the theft of underground cables worth Rs 94.37 lakh is being considered for the post of managing director of the Tamil Nadu electricity board’s proposed generation and distribution company.
Copies of documents available with Deccan Chronicle show that the executive engineer was among the 20 staff members against whom the TNEB chairman ordered action on September 2, 2007, for theft of 42,469 metres of underground cable during 2005-06. The theft came to light when the chairman’s flying squad inspected the records of cable stores at Kadaperi, Tambaram.
As per the records, low tension cables measuring 42,469 metres were issued to seven operation and management sections of Chennai electricity division circle (CEDC), South, from August 2005 to December 2006 without approval from the authorities.
This was documented in the investigation report submitted by chief internal audit officer, C. Chandramohan, a copy of which is available with DC.
While 14 section engineers were indicted of being indirectly responsible for the malpractice, P. Murugan, then a store supervisor, was accused of “committing malpractice” deliberately. However, Mr Murugan retired from service on May 31, 2007, without serving any punishment.
In reply to the RTI petition filed by V. Gopalakrishnan of the federation of anti-corruption teams, the TNEB said that only charges had been framed against officials and disciplinary proceedings had not been taken as yet.
Departmental action was recommended against them including recovering the cost of the cables.