Thirumavalavan asks Tamil Nadu to abandon outsourced meter-reading plan

VCK president Thol. Thirumavalavan has urged the Tamil Nadu government to abandon its plan to outsource electricity-meter reading and fill vacancies in the state power distribution corporation through internal recruitment. In a statement, Thirumavalavan said Tamil Nadu had about 3.52 crore electricity consumers and that complaints about outages, delays in meter reading and billing errors were increasing.

He attributed the problems largely to a shortage of staff. Citing the department’s White Paper, he said 53,575 posts were vacant. The government had announced plans to fill 20,449 positions, including 12,500 multi-purpose field assistants and 945 technical assistants, he said.

Thirumavalavan described the planned outsourcing of meter reading through a limited tender for six months from October as an attempt to privatise the power utility. The supplied material does not include a response from the Tamil Nadu government to his criticism. He also pointed to vacancies among substation operators, putting the number at about 1,800.

He said around 600 employees who had passed the internal recruitment process for technical assistant positions were still waiting for appointments. The VCK leader called on the government to appoint those candidates first against the 945 technical assistant vacancies proposed for filling this year. He cited their experience within the department as a reason for prioritising them.

His appeal centres on using existing staff and internal recruitment to address service pressures rather than transferring meter-reading work to private companies.