CHANDIGARH: In a first, the state government is holding interviews on April 26 (Thursday) to select the chairman and managing director (CMD) of Punjab State Power Corporation Limited (PSPCL). This is a departure from the previous practice of selecting the officer through a screening of service record, with the chief minister giving the final nod. This is also said to be a first in 60 years.

PSPCL and Punjab State Transmission Corporation Limited (PSTCL) were bifurcated out of the erstwhile Punjab State Electricity Board in 2010. A Venu Prasad, an IAS officer, holds the CMD charge at PSPCL now. The selection of PSTCL CMD will take place later. A selection committee comprising Punjab chief secretary Karan Avtar Singh, additional chief secretary, power, Satish Chandra and Power Finance Corporation chairman Rajeev Sharma has called four technocrats for the interview.

“Forty-two applications were received, of which we shortlisted four. We decided to hold interviews, as one of the shortlisted candidates is from out of Punjab,” Chandra said. Of the four, the committee will recommend two names in the order of merit to Punjab chief minister Captain Amarinder Singh through the state’s power minister for final selection of the incumbent.

Of the four on the list, Harbans Singh Sandhu, an electrical engineer, is regional executive director, National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC). At the NTPC, he is the incharge of the western region controlling at least 10,000 MW in Chattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh; is known as a troubleshooter in NTPC.

Hailing from Garhshankar in Hoshiarpur, he is said to have no political support. If selected, he will be the second outsider after NS Vasant, who had led the erstwhile PSEB for a decade. Vasant had worked with the Central Electricity Authority, before

coming here.

The other three are retired engineers from the PSPCL. NK Sharma, now working as director, distribution, with the PSPCL, has a lacklustre performance. However, he has the support of an industrialists’ lobby backing him for the top post and hails from Rampura Phul, the constituency of the state’s new power minister.

Former president of PSEB Engineers Association, Baldev Singh Sran, a retired chief engineer (hydel) in the PSPCL, is on the list. He has years of experience in generation and distribution. His family, from Bathinda, are known Congress supporters.

SK Puri, the fourth name, is a retired engineer-in-chief and has vast experience in thermal generation. He owes allegiance with a religious sect that is supporting his case. Sran and Puri were also shortlisted for the post of director, generation, in the PSPCL. The government, however, is waiting for a decision on the CMD, before it takes up the file of the director’s post.