Employees cheer as Punjab and Haryana High Court halts sale of Punjab Power Corporation Land in Patiala

The High Court had stayed the sale of properties under the Optimum Use of Vacant Government Land (OUVGL) scheme, following a public interest litigation (PIL) filed by advocate Rajbir Singh in December last year.

Sidhu said he had sought urgent intervention against the proposed transfer of 50 acres in Badungar village. According to him, the government was transferring the land to the Punjab Urban Planning and Development Authority (PUDA) under its 80:20 policy, after which it was to be auctioned in the open market.

Gurpreet Singh Gandiwind, state convenor of the PSEB Employees Federation, also welcomed the stay and thanked the court for “listening to the voice of protesting employees”.

He said the federation had been staging protests against the state’s decision to sell PSPCL land to raise revenue. He reiterated the demand that pending subsidies and outstanding power bills of government departments be cleared at the earliest.

Rattan Singh Majri, another convenor of PSEB Employees Federation, said, “Our struggle has borne fruits. We want undue political interference in PSPCL to end, and this OUVGL scheme should be stalled altogether.”

The High Court stay comes amid a series of protests planned by employee bodies. PSEBEA had announced a dharna outside the residence of Punjab Power Minister Sanjeev Arora in Ludhiana on February 28, with one of the key demands being to halt the sale of PSPCL land.

PSPCL land sale and controversy

Before the court’s intervention, PSPCL had already transferred 168 acres of land of the Guru Nanak Dev Thermal Plant’s colony in Bathinda to PUDA in November 2025. However, the process of transferring another 50 acres of land at Badungar village in Patiala district has started following the nod from the Board of Directors of PSPCL last month.

The transfer of PSPCL’s prime land in Sarabha Nagar, Ludhiana, was also scheduled to come up in a forthcoming board of directors meeting. Overall, more than 50 PSPCL properties had been listed under the OUVGL scheme for transfer to PUDA for redevelopment to generate revenue of nearly Rs 2,800 crore, sources added.

Under the proposed arrangements, the sale proceeds of land transferred in Bathinda and Patiala were to be shared in an 80:20 ratio, with 80 per cent earmarked for PSPCL. Separately, over 1,700 acres of land of the Guru Nanak Dev Thermal Plant in Bathinda had been transferred to PUDA in 2020 by the previous Congress government after the plant was shut on January 1, 2018. PUDA retained about 250 acres and returned the remaining land to PSPCL in January last year, but the sale of even the retained land has not materialised so far, despite plans to develop a new urban estate. Eighty per cent of the sale proceeds from this land were also to accrue to PSPCL.

Why employee bodies opposed sale

Employee bodies have questioned the purpose of transferring PSPCL land to PUDA when development and monetisation have failed to materialise over the years. They have argued that the utility’s land should instead be retained for future infrastructure expansion in view of the steady increase in the number of consumers.

Leader of Opposition in Punjab, Partap Singh Bajwa, posted on X,” First the 65,000-acre land pooling scheme stayed. Then the farmhouse policy halted. Then the FAR hike was put on hold. Now a stay on sale of PSPCL land. I thank the Punjab & Haryana High Court for protecting Punjab’s family silver from the thugs of Delhi. In 2027, Punjabis will show them the door.”