PSPCL staff protest as Ludhiana councillor’s husband accuses them of theft

Husband of ward number 3 councillor Pallavi Vinayak accuses employees of stealing power cables during midnight, calls police to arrest them; later says, it was a case of mistaken identity

Contractual employees of the Punjab State Power Corporation Limited (PSPCL) staged a protest on Thursday morning against a Congress councillor’s husband for allegedly hurling abuses at the workers, who were carrying out cable maintenance work on Rahon Road on Wednesday night .

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The employees complained that Vipan Vinayak, husband of ward number 3 councillor Pallavi Vinayak, accused the employees of stealing power cables during midnight and also called the police to arrest them.

They said they had been carrying out cable maintenance work on the Rahon Road as per protocol and many feeders, including that on the Rahon Road, were closed to carry out the repair work.

“These days, we are working from morning till midnight amid pandemic to complete repair works at different places at the earliest, but the councillor’s husband branded us as thieves,” said Raghubir Singh, a union leader. Vinayak had also shared the entire episode on Facebook, the protesters said.

Vipan Vinayak, however, said it was a case of mistaken identity as, of late, there have been complaints of power cable thefts from the area. Later, during the day, both the groups reached a compromise

Zonal president of the Power Corporation Employees Union Ramesh Sharma, divisional president junior engineer Raghveer Singh, former state president Jagir Singh, Gaurav Sharma and Ram Asra condemned the incident.