PSPCL short of equipment, outage fear looms ahead of paddy season

Aman Sood

Tribune News Service

Patiala, May 29

Short of material ahead of the crucial paddy season that starts in a week, the Punjab State Power Corporation Limited (PSPCL) has now asked its field officers “to arrange it”.

No cables for maintenance work

• A senior engineer claims there are no cables to carry out maintenance work in many districts
• Ajay Pal Singh Atwal, general secretary, PSEB Engineers Federation, says: “Distribution transformers, insulators, cables and cable boxes are in limited supply”
• The management says it’s due to lockdown, but engineers say the management has failed to procure the material in time

Tariff cut eyewash

The govt is projecting Rs1 cut in tariff of those who have 2-kW connection for first 200 units, which must be free as was the case under SAD. The truth is tariff has been increased. - Sukhbir Singh Badal, SAD Chief

While the top management claims it is due to pandemic conditions, top engineers claim the management has failed to procure the material in time. “There are practically no cables of different sizes to carry out maintenance work in many districts,” said a senior engineer.

Officials confirmed that the industry in Punjab, which is on revival after the last year’s pandemic, is again facing problems as expansion and other works, which started earlier this year, have again been put on hold due to material shortage. In view of the low stock of critical items, the task to allocate material has been given to chief engineers and they have been asked to regulate the material so that there is no major problem during paddy season starting from June 10.

The PSPCL Chief Managing Director recently asked all superintending engineers not to approach him for any material and instead coordinate with the chief engineers concerned. The CMD has also sought an explanation from senior engineers in Gurdaspur and Ludhiana who wrote to him directly, citing shortage.

Engineers fear manhandling in villages in case of power failure during peak season in the absence of essential material. “This year, the situation is even worse. Distribution transformers, insulators, cables and cable boxes are in limited supply in many districts,” said Ajay Pal Singh Atwal, general secretary, PSEB Engineers Federation.

Vinod Gupta, spokesman, All India Power Engineers Federation, said the non-availability of critical material and lax decision making was detrimental to energy security of the state. “Putting onus on field engineers for on-the-spot purchase shows they will be held accountable in case of power pangs,” he said.

Denying the allegations, PSPCL CMD A Venu Prasad said: “There is no financial problem and sufficient material is available. Problems are due to lockdown. We have allowed spot purchase to meet any urgent demand and have extended existing tenders.”