Farmers Movement Archive

Farmers block highway over power disruption

Patiala: Farmers on Tuesday blocked the Patiala-Chandigarh highway near Daun Kalan village of Patiala against the PSPCL for its failure to resume power supply in agriculture sector after the supply was hit due to damage during a recent storm. The villagers of Daun Kalan said they had made efforts and erected around 80% of damaged electricity poles themselves, but the power supply was not resumed at the agriculture pumpset (AP), following which they staged a protest for around two hours. Villagers claimed that the paddy sown has been affected as farmers could not irrigate their fields due to shortage of power supply. Protesting farmers under BKU (Ekta Ugraha) claimed that many villagers had to use alternative ways to get electricity supply, but the costlier diesel had increased the input cost of irrigating fields. “The government has failed to ensure eight-hour power supply to farmers during paddy season. Electricity has not been available for a week,” said Randhir Singh, a protester. BKU (Ekta Ugraha) Patiala president Manjit Singh Nyal said they had filed complaints too, but no action had been taken.

The Times of India

2021-06-16

Chandigarh