No power supply for 10 days, paddy farmers stage dharna

Residents of various villages today staged a dharna in front of the Chorwala Grid to protest the erratic power supply, which is affecting irrigation of paddy. The protesters raised slogans against the government and the PSPCL authorities.

Addressing mediapersons, Baljit Singh Bhutta, former chairman of Zila Parishad, said there had been no power supply from the Kharora feeder falling under Chorwala Grid for the past 10 days and the farmers of the area had been making rounds of the PSPCL offices. Since nobody was paying heed to their grievances, they were forced to sit on a dharna in front of the grid gate.

He said the top officials of the power department informed them that there was an acute shortage of staff for the repair and to resume power supply.

Bhutta said due to non-availability of power, the ripening paddy crop was drying up, which would affect the yield. He demanded that power supply should be restored immediately so that crops could be saved.

Rajwant Singh, in-charge of the Mullepur police station, reached the site and rang up PSPCL officials. Jaswinder Ram and other officials assured the protesters that power supply would be restored shortly following which farmers ended their dharna.