Farmers Movement Archive

BJP, farmers slam Punjab govt over power crisis in Ludhiana

With both domestic power consumers and industrialists disgruntled over the choppy power supply at the height of the heatwave, members of the Bhartiya Janata Party staged a protest against the Congress-led Punjab government and the Punjab State Power Corporation Limited outside the chief engineer’s office on Ferozepur Road on Friday. Heavy police force was deputed to ensure law and order. The BJP workers alleged that it was the state government’s mismanagement, which had led to the power crisis in the state.“On one hand the government has hiked the power tariff in the state, while on the other, they have failed to provide uninterrupted power supply to the farmers and industry,” they said. Slamming the PSPCL officials, the saffron party workers alleged that residents had been forced to bear the sweltering heat during prolonged power outages, while the PSPCL officials were themselves sitting in air conditioned rooms. Ludhiana BJP president Pushpinder Singal said, “The industry is already reeling under losses due to the ongoing pandemic and the unscheduled power cuts have added to their woes. Farmers are not getting power supply to water the paddy crop. All this due to the state government’s failure to meet the power supply demand sin the state.” BJP leaders threatened to agitate outside the subdivisional offices of the PSPCL, if the government failed to resolve the problem.Paddy crop getting damaged: BKU Lambasting the union government over rising fuel prices and the state government over its failure to provide uninterrupted power supply, which was damaging the paddy crop,the Bhartiya Kisan Union (BKU) Ekta (Ugrahan) staged a protest outside the mini secretariat. Protesting farmers submitted memorandums with the deputy commissioner’s (DC) office, the one on fuel prices was addressed to the Prime Minister and the one on power supply to the chief minister. They said the state government had promised to provide eight hours of uninterrupted power supply during paddy season, but power was only being supplied for around 5 hours. “As we have to use diesel generators to operate the tubewells in absence of electricity, the rising prices of fuel have taken a toll on us,” they said. District general secretary, Sudagar Singh said,”Rather than providing relief to the residents, both the state and Union governments are filling their coffers. Fuel should be brought under GST and tax should not be more than 5%. To compensate for the damage already caused to the paddy crop, the state government should provide electricity for 12 hours now.”Farmers stage counter protest against BJPWhile the BJP leaders were staging a protest against the state government, a small group of farmers staged a counter protest against the saffron party for passing the contentious farm laws. However, they were pacified by the farmers deputed at the spot.

Hindustan Times

02-07-2021

Chandigarh