Mohali residents face power, water pangs amid PSPCL workers’ strike
The Punjab State Power Corporation Limited (PSPCL) joint coordination committee staff extended their strike till September 17 after their earlier three days strike call ended on Thursday, leaving Mohali residents in a fix
With the electricity department employees observing a strike till September 17, residents are having sleepless nights, with power outages running into 48 hours and no staff available for repairs.
The Punjab State Power Corporation Limited (PSPCL) joint coordination committee staff extended their strike till September 17 after their earlier three days strike call ended on Thursday, leaving residents in a fix.
Employees are protesting to seek ₹1-crore compensation for the families of the linemen who died during repairs, besides demanding regularisation of contractual employees.
Protesters are also demanding an increase in staff and safety of senior officers against police proceedings in the incidents involving linemen’s death.
Since the PSPCL is already reeling under staff crunch, no one is receiving calls at the complaint centres, leaving residents helpless during power outages.
Power supply remained disrupted for over 48 hours in Balongi and Barmajra. Long power outages were observed in Phases 3B2, 5 and 11; Sectors 96, 97 and 89; and other city parts as no staff members reached the locations to repair the faulty lines.
Lal Bahadur Yadav, former sarpanch of Azadnagar in Balongi, said the residents faced electricity and water supply outages for two days.
“Due to a fault in a transformer in Azadpur, the power supply got disrupted at 12 pm on Tuesday, also affecting water supply from tubewells. Despite several calls and pleas, no staff turned up to repair the transformer. After we reached the power office and pleaded for help, the power supply got resumed around 2 pm on Thursday and the water supply also began at 4 pm on the same day,” said Yadav, former sarpanch of Azadnagar, Balongi.
A similar situation was witnessed in Phase 11. The call of the residents, however, remained unattended as the staff members were protesting.
“We received several complaints but no staff was available for repairs. We are protesting for the future of scores of employees whose families are also suffering. We will continue our struggle until we get relief from the government,” said PSPCL union president MS Gill.