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Ludhiana: PSPCL staff end 4-day stir after talks with minister
The strike, which began on August 11, was backed by 16 electricity workers’ unions; union leaders accused the government of delaying a circular for 25 demands that were “accepted” on June 2
After four days of disruptions, Punjab State Power Corporation Limited (PSPCL) employees on Thursday called off their strike following a meeting with power minister Harbhajan Singh ETO.
Addressing the media, Harbhajan Singh said talks were held with the PSEB Employees Joint Forum and Bijli Mulazam Ekta Manch ahead of Independence Day. “Since electricity is an essential service, we agreed on certain demands and assured their implementation in the coming days. Following this mutual agreement, the mass leave protest has been withdrawn,” he said.
The strike, which began on August 11, was backed by 16 electricity workers’ unions. Union leaders accused the government of delaying a circular for 25 demands that were “accepted” on June 2. Key demands included filling thousands of vacancies, ensuring equal pay for equal work, special status for contract staff, regularisation of temporary agency workers, removal of a 12% interest clause on certain employee dues, and payment of pending allowances along with revised pensions and salaries.
Operations crippled amid rain
On Thursday, over 1,356 technical and clerical employees remained absent, compounding problems caused by heavy rain. The downpour triggered feeder failures, transformer breakdowns and prolonged outages across several parts of the city.
City West and Model Town divisions were among the worst affected, with localities such as Basant City, Rishi Nagar, Sham Nagar, Sita Nagar, Kundan Nagar and Shastri Nagar facing extended blackouts.
“The power supply has been off since morning. We keep calling the 1912 helpline, but nothing has been resolved,” said Karuna Sharma, a Rishi Nagar resident.
Officials said a transformer failure and a fault at a substation near Basant City worsened the situation. Gurmanpreet Singh, XEN, City West division, said, “With many junior engineers on strike, repairing transformer faults became difficult. Although we managed the fault repairs with outsourced complaint handling bike and wagon staff, but faced difficulties to handle the complaints registered on 1912. Due to his, the pendacy of complaints remain high.”
When contacted, Chief engineer Jagdev Hans said,” The power supply was affected in several areas due to rain. By evening, we restored the electricity in affected areas.”
