HALDWANI: Members of ‘Urja Officers, Supervisor and Staff Association’ from all over the Kumaon protested outside the office of S K Gururani, chief executive engineer, Kumaon Range, Uttarakhand Power Corporation Limited, Haldwani, against the alleged inappropriate transfer of an executive engineer.Protesters have alleged that for cutting off electrical connection of an influential businessman of Ramnagar, the top officials of the department transferred Kanhaiya Ji Mishra, executive engineer (EE) Ramnagar, to Pithoragarh.Following the orders from managing director of UPCL, executive engineer Ramnagar had cut connections of big electricity bill defaulters. But after two days, MD called him to reconnect the electricity of one of the defaulters, who runs a hotel in Ramnagar. But EE refused and argued saying he won’t reconnect the line if payment is not made, protesters said.Satish Joshi, president of Kumaon region, Urja Officers, supervisor and staff Aassociation, told TOI. “Angered by this, MD gave the orders to chief executive engineer of Kumaon zone to transfer EE Mishra to another zone. Also, a chief executive has no powers to transfer an EE,” Joshi said.“The electricity bill of this businessman had reached over one lakh, and following the orders of MD, we cut his connection,” Mishra said.Mishra accused senior officials of the department of being influenced by that businessman. “Transfer is a normal process in the department, but my transfer to another zone by a chief engineer is not appropriate,” he said.Meanwhile, Gururani said that he has transferred Mishra on the basis of MD’s orders and there is nothing wrong in it. “The transfer was done on MD’s orders. The MD had received many complaints against Mishra.”

Stay updated with all the Dehradun Latest News headlines here. For more exclusive & live news updates from all around India, stay connected with NYOOOZ.