THIRUVANANTHAPURAM : High drama prevailed at KSEB headquarters at Pattom here during the half-day protest and dharna by KSEB Officers’ Association. Close to 500 employees, including 200 women, who owe allegiance to KSEBOA took part in the token protest against the suspension of executive engineer A Jasmine Banu. Fifty protesters barged into the board room where chairman and managing director B Ashok who had imposed dies non was huddled with other director board members for an online review meeting.
When KSEBOA’s woman officials had announced a half-day protest in solidarity with Jasmine, Ashok had come out with an order that dies non will be slapped on them. This prompted the men employees to plunge into the protest. A top KSEB official told TNIE that the CMD was keen on ensuring that the protesters do not get the desired support from the remaining staff across the state which led him to call for an online review meeting of 754 section offices and their officers ranging from deputy chief engineers to assistant engineers.
When KSEBOA president M G Suresh Kumar was addressing protesters outside Vydyuthi Bhavan, a few of them sneaked into the seventh floor where the board room is situated. “A few of my colleagues were antagonised when the CMD called a review meeting while the protest meeting was going on. They did not want the CMD to get mileage and disrupted the meeting. The police did not arrest them. After initial commotion, the employees retreated,” Suresh Kumar told TNIE.
The KSEBOA has urged the board not to push them to further agitations. Its members had met Power Minister K Krishnankutty on March 31 and apprised him of the illegal suspension of Jasmine. However, Krishnankutty on Tuesday washed his hands of the matter saying since KSEB was a company, he had limitations to intervene in its day-to-day affairs. Jasmine was allegedly suspended from service for unauthorised absence, despite handing over charge to her subordinate.