Residents of Tower Enclave and New Green Park on Nakodar Road in Jalandhar have been without electricity and water for more than 24 hours due to a protest by regular and contractual technical employees of the Punjab State Power Corporation Limited (PSPCL). The power outages, which began on July 26, also disrupted water supply in the affected areas.
Protest by PSPCL employees disrupts services
Regular PSPCL employees, including junior engineers, linemen, assistant linemen, and substation staff, have been on mass leave since July 22. The situation worsened on July 26 afternoon when contractual linemen, known as CHB workers, joined the protest. The manpower shortage has left the department struggling to attend to faults and restore power supply.
Residents of Streets 1 and 3 in New Green Park reported that power had been cut since 2 pm on July 26. Jasmeet Singh, a local resident, said, “My inverter ran out of power around midnight on Saturday. Since then, we have been left to fend for ourselves in this humid weather. I called PSPCL officials, but they said they did not have enough staff to send someone to attend to the fault and advised us to hire a private electrician. I have also made several complaints through the 1912 helpline, but no one has come to repair the fault.” He added that his mother is a heart patient, making the prolonged outage particularly difficult.
Residents protest and block road
On July 27, residents of Tower Enclave and nearby areas blocked Nakodar Road, claiming they had been without electricity and water for three days. The protestors demanded immediate restoration of services and criticized the deadlock between the department and its employees. “Officials are saying that their workers are on strike. But the deadlock is between the department and its employees. Why should residents suffer?” said a resident.
In rural areas, farmers blocked the Hoshiarpur and Chandigarh bypass in Phagwara on July 27, bringing traffic to a halt for several hours while protesting prolonged power outages.
Failed negotiations and demands
A nearly six-hour meeting between unions representing the protesting employees and PSPCL management on July 26 evening ended without a resolution. Regular employees are demanding release of pending 18% dearness allowance, enhancement of promotion quota from Assistant Engineer to Additional Assistant Engineer, revision of pay scales for those recruited after July 17, 2020, full salary during probation, release of arrears pending since January 1, 2016, fast-track filling of vacant posts, and restoration of the old pension scheme. CHB workers are demanding clarity on their status and designation after the department decided to bring them under direct contractual employment. Outsourced workers at Nodal Complaint Centres and Suvidha Centres are also demanding direct contractual employment with PSPCL.
PSPCL officials acknowledge shortage
PSPCL officials acknowledged the shortage of technical staff. “We do not have enough technical manpower to repair all faults. We are hopeful that the employees will return to work, improving the situation,” the officials said. Available staff are being deployed to different areas one by one, prolonging outages across the region.
