The Bhakra Beas Management Board (BBMB) has decided to repatriate employees belonging to its partner states to their parent departments six months before retirement, a move likely to aggravate the organisation’s acute manpower shortage.The decision was taken at a recent board meeting following representations from the partner states over pension-related anomalies involving employees serving with the BBMB. Sources said repatriation orders for around 12 employees had already been issued. In one case, an employee was repatriated barely 10 days before retirement.Employees from Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan and Himachal Pradesh serve in the BBMB. Under the board’s existing arrangement, employees can opt for the pay scales of any partner state in accordance with the principle of “equal pay for equal work”. Since PSPCL scales are generally higher than those of the other partner states, all employees serving in the BBMB have predominantly opted for Punjab scales.However, the arrangement has created complications after employees retire. While their pensions are paid by their respective parent states, several retired employees have approached courts seeking pensionary benefits based on the higher last pay drawn while serving with the BBMB. This has resulted in some retired employees receiving substantially higher pensions than their counterparts who remained in their parent departments.The sources said the partner states agreed to the six-month repatriation policy to ensure employees retire from their parent departments and receive pension benefits under the applicable state service rules.BBMB employee unions have strongly opposed the decision and urged the board to withdraw it. The unions have argued that employees who have spent almost their entire careers serving the organisation should not be sent back to their parent departments merely six months before retirement. They have termed the decision unjust and impractical.The latest decision comes at a particularly difficult time for the BBMB, which is already facing a serious shortage of technical manpower. The situation is likely to worsen with nearly 330 employees expected to retire in the coming months.Punjab alone has around 1,486 vacant technical posts in the BBMB against a sanctioned strength of 3,297. These include 568 foremen responsible for repair and maintenance work of the Bhakra Dam, dam galleries, spillway gates, turbines, etc.