Sources cited "discouraging" recommendations in the Sixth Pay Commission and lucrative offers available outside as possible reasons for exit of these engineers.
According to top Nuclear Power Corporation of India Ltd (NPCIL) sources, most shocking was Director of Kaiga, Harsh Kapoor opting for VRS and 16 shift operation and maintenance engineers from the 540 Mw plants at Tarapur resigning en masse last week.
Senior officials on condition of anonymity said earlier attrition was not taken seriously as it was mostly limited to youngsters. But now, with the station director level officers resigning, and the en masse resignations of the shift engineers, which could even hamper the operation of the plant, lot of importance is being accorded to this problem.
NPCIL's human resource division yesterday held a meeting to find out what could be done in the existing framework of NPCIL and Government of India to retain the existing talent.
Earlier, Principal Advisor of the Department of Atomic Energy V P Raja held a meeting of officials from various divisions like Finance, HR and R&D together so that they could appreciate each others contributions to the industry.
In the last six months, 30 to 40 such meetings were conducted across the country, sources said, adding, this was one way of keeping the morale of the engineers, scientists and other officials high.