After months of dilly-dallying, the Punjab government today appointed Harinder Singh Brar as the new chairman of the all-important Punjab State Electricity Board. He assumed the new office in the afternoon today.

Talking to The Indian Express after assuming charge, Brar said, “My priority will be to provide good power services to consumers, help improve the board’s functioning, and reduce its losses by bringing in more efficiency in both services and functioning.”

Brar, who was earlier Member (Distribution) in the board, replaced YS Ratra, who had been continuing as the chairman even after the change of guard in the state. Ratra, a close aide of former chief minister Capt Amarinder Singh, was appointed during the previous Congress regime after his retirement as chief secretary of the state.

Sources say a close aide in the Chief Minister’s office, who is also a distant relative of the Badals, was pushing Brar’s case for a few weeks now. Even though other members of the board were also trying hard for the post, Brar pipped them.

The filling of the post had become a headache for the Akalis, as there were far too many political leaders aspiring for it. Many of them were senior Akali leaders who had lost in the Assembly polls in the state. This is the reason why the Chief Minister had let Ratra to continue, and has now replaced him with a technocrat. It has been long since a technocrat was appointed to the post, with politicians and bureaucrats holding it earlier.

Coming from a rural background, Brar joined PSEB as an apprentice engineer and rose to the rank of engineer-in-chief after working with the board for 35 years. He was retained as advisor/sub-station after retiring in January 2008, and was elevated as Member (Distribution) in April 2008.

He specialises in distribution and transmission sectors.