Electricity engineers and employees accuse Punjab Govt of unilaterally planning to sell PSPCL assets

The protesters say that Punjab’s power sector is passing through a rough phase, with unprecedented political interference allegedly eroding PSPCL’s independence.

2 min readJalandharUpdated: Feb 4, 2026 05:59 PM IST

Employees, engineers, and pensioners of PSPCL protested in Patiala on Wednesday. (Photo by special arrangement)

Under the banner of a Joint Action Committee (JAC), employees, engineers, and pensioners of Punjab State Power Corporation Limited (PSPCL) protested in front of its head office in Patiala on Wednesday against sale of the power department’s properties, the Electricity (Amendment) Bill 2025, and the installation of two thermal units of 800MW in Ropar.

Electricity employees, engineers, and pensioners from across the state have been on the warpath against the Government’s policies for many months. The protesters said the power sector was passing through a rough phase, with unprecedented political interference allegedly eroding PSPCL’s independence.

JAC leaders from various unions and associations, including Ajaypal Singh Atwal, general secretary of the PSEB Engineers’ Association, spoke on the occasion.

The JAC leaders said the Punjab Government was unilaterally planning to sell the valuable lands and other assets of PSPCL on the pretext of the Optimum Utilisation of Vacant Government Lands (OUVGL) scheme.

Padamjit Singh, chief patron of the JAC, said the country’s power distribution companies had collectively reported a profit after tax of Rs 2,700 crore and that line losses had also come down from 22.62 per cent in 2014. The Central Government is still bent on tabling the “anti-people” Electricity (Amendment) Bill 2025 in the ongoing Budget Session of Parliament in a very chaotic manner, just to facilitate a corporate takeover of power distribution, he alleged.

The Joint Action Committee also adopted a few resolutions calling for the scrapping of the four new labour codes, withdrawal of Chief Justice of India Surya Kant’s recent comments against trade unions, adjustment of degree/diploma apprenticeship holders in power utilities, adjustment of outsourced meter readers and workers in Punjab State Power Corporation Limited and Punjab State Transmission Corporation Limited.

The JAC appealed to all power-sector trade unions in the state to join the countrywide strike on February 12.

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