Hyderabad: Chairman and Managing Director of TSGenco and TSTransco Prabhakar Rao came in for some gentle ribbing from Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao on Saturday.

As the Chief Minister mentioned Prabhakar Rao’s name the first time while addressing a large gathering of employees from the State’s power utilities, it was greeted with loud cheers and claps from the power sector workers.

Rao then said, “It appears that Prabhakar Rao is very popular,” and turned towards the official who was by his side. “May be we should ask him to contest in the elections,” the Chief Minister continued drawing even more applause and cheers from the gathering at Pragati Bhavan even as Prabhakar Rao joined his hands in a ‘namasthe’.

Terms extended

State government on Saturday announced appointment of officials to four power utilities in Telangana. It also announced the extension of services of G Raghuma Reddy, Chairman & Managing Director of TSSPDCL till May 31, 2019.

The government said it was appointing N Janaiah as Vice-Chairman & Managing Director of TSREDCO till 31 May 2019 in place of A Sudakhar Rao with immediate effect. Sudhakar Rao has been relieved of his current position and has been directed to report to his parent department.

It said it was extending the terms of the following directors of power utilities till May 31, 2019. They are J Srinivas Reddy and T Srinivas, Director (IPC&RAC) with TSSPDCL, B Venkateshwar Rao, now Director (Projects) as Director (HR) in TSNPDCL, G Narsing Rao, T Jagath Reddy, J Surya Prakash, Ch Venkatrajam and S Ashok Kumar in TSGenco while M Sachidanandam, now Director (Thermal) has been appointed as Director (Projects) in TSGenco.

Meanwhile, Telangana Electricity Engineers Association thanked Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao for announcing a wage hike beyond what any power sector employees even dreamt of.

In a statement, the Association president Shivaji said Saturday has been a day of festivities for every employee in the energy utilities in Telangana.

“We are very grateful to the Chief Minister for taking into consideration the nature of our work and the potential risks faced by power sector workers and announcing a new health scheme for all of us,” Shivaji said.

He said no other previous government had ever demonstrated or even showed that it cared about electricity workers as much. It is also a great pleasure to see that the government has appointed many who worked tirelessly during the Telangana movement for the separate State, he added.