Angered by power cut, locals block road

Residents of many areas on Chandigarh Road — Guru Nanak Nagar, Sukhdev Nagar, Bhamiyan, Phase 8, Sahibana and others — were left to sweat throughout the day without electricity on Tuesday. This made the residents impatient, who protest on the Chandigarh Road, which blocked highway for more than half an hour on Tuesday night.

The electricity supply to the area was disturbed because of fault in various feeders under the Focal Point division. As the junior engineers (JEs) and other staff of this division were on strike against the politically forced transfer of JE Kuldeep Singh, the fault could not be rectified throughout the day.

Gurdev Singh, a resident of Guru Nanak Nagar near Police Colony, said, “There was not electricity in our area from 8am. We called several times to the PSPCL complaint centre, but to no avail. No one told us what the problem was and when it would get resolved. Spending the entire day without electricity in the sticky summers is not an easy task, especially when the state claims to be power surplus.”

The residents raised slogans against the Powercom and Punjab government and blocked the road for around 45 minutes, disturbing the traffic on the highway. However, no police force came to handle the traffic on the spot.

Moreover, when the protesting residents spotted a Punjab State Power Corporation Limited (PSPCL) vehicle stuck in traffic jam, which was going somewhere else, they forcefully took them to their locality and got their electricity resumed.

HS Jogi, deputy chief engineer, east circle, PSPCL central zone, Ludhiana, said, “Faults were identified in five feeders of the Focal Point division due to which electricity supply got disturbed in many areas on Tuesday. As the JEs and other staff were on strike, work could not be progressed. However, the matter related to the transfer of Kuldeep Singh was solved by night, after which the staff returned to job and by10.30pm, electricity in most of the areas was restored.”