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Journalism of Courage
A protest by Samyukta Kisan Morcha (non political), as well as an indefinite hunger strike by some farmer leaders, outside the Punjab State Power Corporation (PSPCL)’s head office in Ludhiana continued on Monday. On Monday, more than 800 employees working in the head office were not allowed to enter the premises, with most staff instead opting to either work from home or from other sub-offices of Patiala.
The protest dharna outside the PSPCL office had been launched in the morning on June 8, with the farmer leaders later that afternoon locking up the gates and squatting in front of them after pitching tents. Five farm union leaders — Including Jagjit Singh Dallewal, Bhojraj Singh, Kulwinder Singh Panjola, and Tarsem Singh Gill — had a day later launched a simultaneous hunger strike to press for a host of demands, which included wanting electricity connections for farmers, an end to commercial fee on electricity connections taken for ancillary businesses and a permanent solution to the stray cattle menace, among others things.
On Thursday, after the protest was launched, 27 PSPCL and SBI employees, including 11 women, had been held hostage till late Thursday night after the farmers protesting outside the main gate of the PSPCL office locked the gate. The employees were eventually allowed to leave at 11.50 pm after the police intervened. On Friday morning, the protesting farmers did not allow any PSPCL employees to enter the premises. The PSPCL chairman-cum-managing director (CMD), directors of PSPCL and Punjab State Power Transmission Limited (PSTCL), several chief engineers etc work from these premises. The State Bank of India’s Punjab State Electricity Board ( PSEB) branch also operates from inside the campus.
“Since Thursday afternoon, the lock outside the PSPCL office has not been opened . Neither on Friday nor on Monday we were allowed to go inside the premises. We are working from home or other branch offices,” said Ranbir Singh, a PSPCL employee. He added that he was briefly held hostage on Thursday before being rescued by the police late at night.
On Monday, the SKM (non political) members also held a protest march in Patiala and burnt the effigy of Baldev Singh Saran, the chairman cum managing director ( CMD) of PSPCL . Farmer leader Jagjit Singh Dallewal later said,”In May last, the year CMD of PSPCL had agreed to our demands. But none of them were implemented till date. We want the CMD himself to come and explain to us why our demands were not implemented. Our protests will continue.” Later in the evening, farm leader Jagjit Singh Dallewal, addressed a gathering at the protest site and stated that all the protesters together had decided to go on a hunger strike from Monday, not consuming anything except tea and water, till the time their demands are met.
“We are ready to be jailed, but we will not end our hunger strike till our demands are met. The government can use the police and try to remove us from the spot, but we will not budge, we will not end our dharna,” Dallewal said. He added that Punjab CM Bhagwant Mann had been troubling the masses in the name of badlaav. “He [Mann] attends television programmes where he says that he is running the government after consulting with the masses and then he refuses to listen to us. On Thursday, the government had intentionally asked a few employees to stay back inside the campus so that they could later allege that some people had been held hostage by us. ”
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