Amritsar, January 2
The Joint Action Committee (JAC) of Punjab’s Power Sector employees, engineers and pensioners held their first zonal protest as part of a statewide agitation in Amritsar today in front of the Border Zone Office. A large number of employees, engineers, pensioners and farmer unions participated in this protest. The protests were organized against the sale of Power Corporation’s land/properties, scrapping of the Draft Electricity Amendment Bill 2025 and the demand to set up two super critical 800 MW units at thermal plant Ropar under the state sector.
JAC representatives said that the Punjab government is contemplating to sell various properties owned by Power Corporation in different cities under the garb of monetization. During the protest the speakers demanded that the sale process of these lands should be immediately halted and proper plans for utilizing these properties should be put into action.
“In order to meet the increasing demand for electricity in Punjab, the central government approved the setting up of two new 800 MW supercritical thermal units at Ropar, however, the state government has not yet taken any significant steps in this direction. The government should take steps to set up these units in the state sector, not in the private sector”, demanded the protestors.
The JAC also pointed out that additionally, the central government has sent the Draft Electricity Amendment Bill 2025 to the state governments seeking comments, which the state government has not sent so far. “In case the Draft Electricity Amendment Bill 2025 is passed, the electricity distribution sector will be opened up for private companies to utilize the infrastructure of public sector electricity distribution companies’, they added.
It was also informed during the protest that as per the struggle programme chalked out, the zonal protest dharna will be held on January 6 at Bathinda. JAC has further appealed to the state government to immediately reverse the anti-power sector decisions, so that industrial peace is maintained within the department.
Ajaypal Singh Atwal, General Secretary of the PSEB Engineers’ Association; Parmjeet Singh Khattra, State President; Davinder Singh, Senior Vice President; Iqbal Singh, Zonal President; Vimal Kumar, Zonal Secretary, TSU; Kuldeep Singh Udhoke, Harpreet Singh, Pensioners Association; Kuldeep Singh Khanna and others from farmers’ unions also addressed the gathering.
