By: Gurvinder SinghCHANDIGARH: Punjab’s power crisis continued on Sunday, with power minister Tarunpreet Singh Sond saying the state was receiving 1,051 MW less than its share from the Central Power Pool.He urged the Centre to ensure Punjab gets its full allocation, saying uninterrupted supply was crucial for agriculture.Sond denied a coal shortage at Punjab government-owned thermal plants, attributing the problem at private plants in Talwandi Sabo and Rajpura to coal supply. He said the state’s Pachhwara coal mine had ensured adequate coal for its own generation facilities.Sond said a technical fault in one unit had been resolved by PSPCL and efforts were on to restore the remaining private-sector units. PSPCL CMD Basant Garg and director (generation) Punerdeep Singh Brar were also present.Meanwhile, protests over erratic farm power supply continued across Punjab. Farmers are demanding eight hours of uninterrupted supply as paddy enters the ripening stage. They said they had been receiving only three to four hours a day for more than a week.
Farmers’ demands
Road blockades were reported in parts of Malwa. In Mandi Kalan village of Bathinda, BKU Ekta Sidhupur activists blocked the Rampura-Maur road and burnt an effigy of the chief minister.In Moga’s Dharamkot, Azad Kisan Morcha activists protested at Dholewala grid until midnight and later received five hours of supply on Sunday, functionary Sukh Gill Moga said.BKU Lakhowal general secretary Harinder Singh Lakhowal warned that farmers’ groups would intensify protests if the shortage was not resolved.Kisan Mazdoor Morcha (KMM) will also begin protests outside the residences of seven Punjab ministers and the assembly speaker from Sep 14 over a 12-point charter, including an immediate resolution to the electricity crisis.KMM Punjab chapter convener Sarvan Singh Pandher said the state govt must address farmers’ and workers’ demands. He said a decision on further action would be taken on Sep 16 if the govt failed to resolve the issues.The forum’s demands include guaranteed procurement of all crops at minimum support price, complete debt waiver for farmers and workers, action on floods, groundwater depletion and pollution, withdrawal of the proposed electricity and seed bills, rejection of the India-US trade agreement, cancellation of cases registered during past agitations and scrapping of the land pooling policy.
Ludhiana industry threatens exodus over long outages
Industrial groups in Ludhiana have threatened to move operations out of Punjab over prolonged night-time power cuts, saying the disruptions are hitting production, raising costs and putting supply chains at risk.Manufacturers said cuts between 8pm and 6am lasted up to 13 hours in parts of Focal Point. Industry bodies have announced protests after assurances from Punjab State Power Corporation Limited (PSPCL) to prevent further disruptions failed within 48 hours of them calling off a Sep 8 protest.Federation of Industrial & Commercial Organisation (Fico) chairperson K K Seth said industry could not repeatedly absorb power shortages, which were causing production halts, delayed deliveries and losses affecting businesses and workers.Fico president Gurmeet Singh Kular said the manufacturing sector was being made to bear the burden of shortages while the state continued to provide free power to households and agriculture.Kular sought a review of the policy before a meeting with PSPCL’s chairperson on Monday. Fico proposed rotating, scheduled cuts among Ludhiana, Mandi Gobindgarh and Amritsar instead of complete blackouts, saying industrial units could plan around such disruptions.Avtar Singh Bhogal of the bicycle industry said continuous-process units such as furnaces, paint plants, nickel plating, powder coating and heat treatment could not function through overnight shutdowns.“We will be forced to shift industry to another state if this is not resolved,” he said, while acknowledging the underlying coal shortage.Ludhiana Dyeing Association representative Bobby Jindal said the group would block traffic at Vardhman Chowk on Monday.(With agency inputs)
