Storm-hit transformers not replaced, Patran pumps stall

PATIALA: Many farmers of this district’s Patran town protested on Wednesday against the disruption of power supply to their fields because storm-damaged transformers remain unreplaced.
Sources in Punjab State Power Corporation Limited blamed shortage of equipment for the outage. PSPCL doesn’t have enough 25 and 16 KV transformers to replace the damaged ones, so it had to place an emergency purchase order. The farmers of Ghanaur and Patran wait to irrigate their paddy fields. The last storm uprooted electricity poles, cutting the power supply to the agricultural pump sets and blowing up the transformers.
Krantikari Kisan Union’s Patran block president Harbhajan Singh Dhoor said: "We protested for more than 3 hours at the Patran grid, before the PSPCL officials. Only replacing the storm-damaged transformers can restore our supply of electricity. The pump sets of Patiala’s Dutal village are off for the past four days ."
Last month, electricity engineers had written to the PSPCL chairman and managing director that the corporation had inadequate preparations for the paddy season because it had not procured critical material such as cables, poles, and transformers in time.