A Case Study of National Power Limited

Abstract

National Power Limited (NPL) was a public sector undertaking of the Government of India under the Ministry of Power, having a total generating capacity of 4,860 megawatts of coal-based thermal power. NPL had seven power plants in operation across three states in the northern part of the country, with 8,212 employees. The case describes an appointment of a non-executive post at a power-generating plant of NPL, which is referred to as the Chandanpur unit. This appointment was made to honour an unprincipled demand by the Minister of Forestry and Environment of the concerned state government. The matter got exposed through a complaint received by the Vigilance Department of NPL. The manager of the coal handling department of the Chandanpur unit had lodged the complaint, mentioning the possibility of anomalies in the appointment. On verification, it was found out that the executive director of the Chandanpur unit had appointed a person in the highest supervisory post of that unit by flouting all rules and guidelines of recruitment in the organization. Anomalies included not taking approval for upgradation of the offer made initially, interviewing directly without holding any written test and changing the minimum eligibility criterion for the post. All this was a major breach of Article 14 of the Constitution of India, which confers the right to equality to a citizen of India as a fundamental right. Based upon findings of the investigation report, the culpability established in the irregularity and gross violation of the established rules of NPL, major disciplinary proceedings were initiated against all the involved officials and the appointee. Since it was a criminal case, it was also referred to the Federal Investigating Agency for further investigation and prosecution of the offenders. All NPL executives involved, and the appointee was implicated, though no culpability could be established against the Minister or his confidential assistant.