Aman Sood

Tribune News Service

Patiala, June 15

Despite the state government’s claim of being power surplus, farmers are facing an acute shortage of electricity for their fields. Farm unions are now out on the streets against Punjab State Power Corporation Limited (PSPCL).

In many villages, paddy fields have run dry with no power for the past five days. As a result, labour is sitting idle and every day losses are mounting. Farmer unions claim in certain areas, PSPCL officials are yet to inform farmers as to when the power supply will be restored, if at all.

Earlier, farmers under the banner of Bhartiya Kisan Union Ugrahan today blocked the Patiala-Rajpura highway, raising slogans against the Punjab Government and PSPCL for their failure to ensure uninterrupted power supply. “Our fields are running dry. We are suffering financially by using diesel to run generators for water. PSPCL has failed to supply us power even for four hours, leave aside the promised 8-hour supply,” said BKU leader Manjit Singh.

Recent storms have caused losses worth crores to PSPCL and its staff is still to rectify the supply to many villages. Till the filing of the copy, many villages and the city area of Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh’s hometown of Patiala were also without power.

Many areas reported unscheduled power cuts, and in some villages, farmers claimed they got only six hours for their fields while their residences remained without power during the day.

“We are suffering losses due to the poor functioning of PSPCL officials. Our repeated requests to field officers have fallen on deaf ears. It is high time the government intervenes,” claimed Satnam Singh Behru, associated with the Consortium of Indian Farmers Association.

Another thunderstorm and high velocity wind on Tuesday affected the power supply, resulting in snags in many villages and cities. Even the power demand crashed from 10,130 MW at 3 pm to 8,250 MW around evening.