Irate over not getting an adequate power supply to run tubewells and irrigate their paddy fields, farmers have been staging protests outside power grids and blocking highways across the region for the past two days. Notably, the state recorded a peak power demand of 16,604 MW on Saturday.
Senior farmer leader Sarwan Singh Pandher today announced that protests would be held outside the offices of the Punjab State Power Corporation Limited (PSPCL) on June 30 over the inadequate power supply and other issues.
In Bathinda district, the farmers of Mandi Kalan and neighbouring villages today blocked the Rampura Phul-Talwandi Sabo National Highway over this issue.
Similarly, in Barnala district, farmers today blocked the Bathinda-Chandigarh National Highway near Tapa, claiming they were receiving only three to four hours of electricity instead of the promised eight hours for the past about a week. They alleged that despite approaching officials at the Tapa power grid, no action was taken, forcing them to resort to a highway blockade.
At Aulakh village in Muktsar district, farmers today erected a tent on the Malout-Muktsar road and blocked it, saying that the erratic power supply was affecting paddy transplantation and irrigation, putting crops at risk of drying up and causing financial losses.
Similar protests were reported from villages in Barnala’s Rureke Kalan area, where farmers gheraoed power department officials, and from Muktsar district’s Lambi Assembly constituency on Saturday, where farmers blocked the national highway and staged demonstrations outside the Badal and Killianwali power grids over prolonged power cuts.
The power department officials, however, attributed the outages to system-wide power cuts ordered by higher authorities rather than local technical faults. The videos of farmers arguing with the power department officials in some parts of the state have also gone viral on social media.
Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) president Sukhbir Singh Badal, in a social media post, alleged, “The entire Punjab is facing a severe power crisis. Farmers and the general public are suffering due to prolonged power outages. However, the Chief Minister is busy gathering party workers in village meetings and indulging in political theatrics. In the past four and a half years, he has pushed Punjab towards ruin.”
Meanwhile, parts of Bathinda and Mansa districts received rainfall on Sunday, bringing some relief from the ongoing heatwave.
