Captain Amarinder Singh ignoring plight of farmers who lost crop in fire, says Bir Devinder Singh

“Many more affected farmers are in the same state of unfathomable shock but the state government seems to be in deep slumber on this catastrophe faced by the farming community. Unfortunately, no structured meeting has been reported so far at CM’s level, to discuss the measures of providing immediate relief to the worst hit victims of the fire tragedy. Regrettably enough, Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh, who also happens to be Agriculture Minister of the state, has not even cared to visit the grieving farmers of the ten villages,” said Bir Devinder.

Bir Devinder alleged that the fire broke out because of repeated sparks by cross-touching of 66 KV transmission conductor live wires with the 11 KV live conductor. Accusing the Punjab State Power Corporation Limited (PSPCL) engineers of “colossal negligence”, he said that the office of Chief Engineer Planning, PSPCL, Patiala and Deputy Chief Engineer, Protection and Maintenance, Circle Ludhiana in were seized of the issue of urgent maintenance of this stretch since November 2015.

The former Deputy Speaker said that the “most intriguing fact” that has come to fore, is that the joint tower to tower patrolling by three Superintending Engineers (SEs) of the PSPCL was carried out only on the papers and a “fake report” was submitted without physically verifying pole to pole sag on the spot.

“Had the joint tower to tower patrolling by three SEs of the PSPCL done genuinely and corrective measures would have been strictly, put in place, the vast devastation of the farmers would have been certainly avoided, despite inclement stormy weather conditions,” he said.