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Ludhiana: Field operations hit as PSPCL staff go on two-day mass leave
According to official attendance data, 1,686 of the 2,522 employees posted in the Central Zone remained on strike, taking the overall participation to 66.85%
Over two-thirds of the Punjab State Power Corporation Limited (PSPCL) workforce in the Central Zone launched a two-day mass casual leave strike on Tuesday. The protest, aimed at pressing long-pending demands, severely disrupted field operations across Ludhiana, Khanna, and suburban divisions.
According to official attendance data, 1,686 of the 2,522 employees posted in the Central Zone remained on strike, taking the overall participation to 66.85%. While power supply remained largely unaffected, officials said routine field operations, consumer services and maintenance work were impacted due to the large-scale absence of technical and clerical staff.
The Suburban Circle recorded the highest participation at 85.08%, with 610 of its 717 employees joining the strike. The City East Circle reported 67.40% participation (277 of 411 employees), followed by the Khanna Circle at 57.80% (515 of 891) and the City West Circle at 56.46% (284 of 503). The chief office recorded minimal participation.
The strike was called jointly by power employees’ unions and engineers’ organisations after talks with the Punjab power minister failed to break the deadlock on Monday. Employee leaders said the protest was launched over pending issues, including payment of dearness allowance (DA), implementation of the Old Pension Scheme (OPS), withdrawal of the July 17, 2020, government order, filling of vacant posts, regular recruitment, revision of the initial pay scale of assistant engineers and other pay-related matters.
The agitation comes at a time when PSPCL is already grappling with an acute manpower shortage. Union leaders claimed that nearly 40% of sanctioned Junior Engineer posts remain vacant, while existing employees are also being assigned non-power duties such as the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls, Census-related work and mining enforcement, further stretching the workforce.
With a large section of field staff absent, routine operations including complaint redressal, maintenance works, release of new electricity connections, meter-related services and inspections were affected across almost every division in the Central Zone. Officials said Khanna Circle witnessed comparatively less disruption than other circles, but acknowledged that ground-level work was impacted across all subdivisions.
To ensure uninterrupted electricity supply, PSPCL redeployed senior officers to the field. Additional superintending engineers (SEs), executive engineers (XENs), sub-divisional officers (SDOs) and other supervisory officers were stationed at grid substations and key installations to oversee operations and attend to emergencies.
The PSEB Engineers’ Association also issued fresh operational guidelines to its members during the strike. According to the directions, engineers were instructed not to operate breakers, GO switches and other technical equipment that are ordinarily handled by designated field staff. The association also directed its members not to perform duties assigned to striking employees and to restrict themselves to the prescribed eight-hour duty schedule.
Chief engineer, PSPCL Central Zone, Jagdev Singh Hans, said the utility had made alternative arrangements to minimise inconvenience to consumers.
“Despite the strike, we have deployed available officers and staff at critical locations, including grid substations, to ensure that electricity supply remains normal. While some routine field activities have been affected because of reduced manpower, we are making every effort to ensure consumers do not face any disruption in power supply,” Hans said.
Rajesh Kumar, state secretary of Employees Federation, Pehlwan, said employees had repeatedly raised their demands before the management and the power minister, but no concrete decision had been taken.
“The power sector is vital to Punjab’s economy and development, but employees continue to face unresolved issues relating to pending DA, pay arrears, vacancies, the July 17, 2020, government order, the Old Pension Scheme and pay anomalies. Despite severe staff shortages, engineers and employees have continued to maintain power supply. We have been left with no option but to launch this agitation under the banner of the Joint Forum and Ekta Manch,” he said.
Kumar claimed that all members of his federation had participated in the strike and appealed to employees of other unions to join the agitation, saying it was “not the fight of any particular union but of every employee.”
Union leaders warned that if the government fails to address their demands after the two-day strike, they may intensify the agitation in the coming days.
Pensioners to march to DC offices today
As part of the ongoing agitation by power employees and pensioners, pensioners’ organisations across Punjab will hold district-level marches to deputy commissioners’ offices on Wednesday and court arrest over their pending demands.
According to union leader Gurpreet Singh Mahidudan, pensioners in Ludhiana will assemble at Pensioners Bhawan at 10 am before marching to the deputy commissioner’s office, where they will offer arrests as a mark of protest. The programme is part of a statewide agitation over issues including pending dearness allowance, implementation of the Old Pension Scheme and other long-pending service and pension-related demands.
Union leaders said the protest would further intensify pressure on the state government to resolve the issues affecting both serving employees and retired personnel.
