Industrialists burn govt effigy over power cuts

Tribune News Service

Ludhiana, July 10

In view of the power crisis, various industry organisations under the banner of the All Industries and Trade Forum Organisation protested against the government at the cycle market here today. Industry representatives burnt the effigy of the state government to mark the protest.

Since the past 10 days, the large-scale industries are forced to close down their units due to power cuts. This is the longest-ever lockdown for industries due to power shortage in the history of the state, said Badish Jindal, president, Federation Of Punjab Small Industries Association. “The industry strongly slammed the government for the failure of providing power to the industries which resulted into the production loss of over 20,000 crores in state,” he added.

The industries produce over 40,000 tons of steel in the state daily. The crisis affected the production of 4 lakh tons of steel in state and also impacted the production of yarn. The blackout directly affected 10,000 industries and two lakh industries indirectly in the state.

The whole situation was caused due to the ‘mismanagement’ of the PSPCL as the own thermal plants were shut down on the name of surplus power in the state, said Jindal further.

The power is available in many states but the PSPCL is failed to buy the power due to its worst financial position which is due to the non-payment of subsidies by the state government to the PSPCL. Due to Covid, the industries were already in crisis and these cuts deepened their troubles. Exports of more than 1,000 crore are at risk due to the cancellation of orders, added another industrialist Narinder Bhamra.

The industrial heads present there have warned the government that they won’t stop their industries if some extension in cuts is announced by the government. “We will start our industries and government will be responsible for fire out of their grids,” said Jindal.