Overview
- The state has proposed recruiting at least 15,000 permanent Tamil Nadu Electricity Board employees to reduce a claimed shortfall of about 70,000 and stop use of contractual hires.
- A new procurement rule requires three independent technical committees to estimate tenders and cancel opaque contracts, and officials say suspected past irregularities have been referred to the CBI and state Vigilance.
- Officials have blamed recent Chennai-area blackouts partly on deliberate sabotage, citing CCTV evidence, filed police complaints, and making some arrests while deploying extra patrols and repair teams.
- The government says distribution failures are worsened by ageing equipment, noting that roughly 60–70% of about 450,000 transformers are over 20 years old and unable to handle peak loads.
- Several reforms are still pending, including decisions on 5,500 Gangmen hires, a web portal for solar connections, and a full stock valuation tied to alleged past losses, with officials promising ongoing Minnagam updates for real-time fault reporting.