PSPCL staff’s stir leaves residents ‘powerless’ in Amritsar

The protest by the power corporation employees has left residents high and dry.

Their repeated attempts to get through to the staff to address their power outage complaints have gone futile, they say.

Arshdeep Singh of Gurdwara Guru Ka Khoo area in Tarn Taran city said, “A power cut was imposed around 9 pm last night. We filed a number of complaints on the mobile app as well as on helplines, but nobody responded, forcing the residents to bear with the heat and humidity.” The supply to the area was restored after 18 hours.

Kewal Singh, a resident of of Bohri Wali Chowk, said, “It’s been going on like this for the past four days as the power corporation employees are on a strike. Every night, we have to face power cuts. A couple of days ago, the power supply was restored after 23 hours.”

Ditto is the situation in the holy city. Harpreet Singh of Kot Mit Singh said, “Even as the weather is not as hot and humid as it was a few days ago, without electricity, we are unable to fill water tanks. Imagine leaving for work without taking a bath during peak summer.”

Harpreet demanded that the government should initiate talks with the protesting employees and people should not be made to suffer.

Meanwhile, the protesting employees have extended their agitation till July 26, the day they would decide their future course of action. The protesting employees alleged that the large-scale installation of smart meters was being pushed without adequately addressing the concerns of workers and consumers. They also raised several long-pending service-related demands, including regularisation of contractual employees, equal pay for equal work, withdrawal of punitive actions against staff and filling of vacant posts in the corporation.

The unions claimed that despite repeated representations and discussions, the PSPCL management had not taken concrete steps to resolve the issues, forcing employees to continue their agitation.