LUDHIANA, Aug 13 — Power supply in Ludhiana was thrown into disarray on Tuesday as the mass casual leave protest by Punjab State Power Corporation Limited (PSPCL) employees entered its second day, with 1,345 workers off duty.
Heavy rain deepened the crisis, triggering prolonged outages, severe voltage fluctuations, feeder trippings and equipment breakdowns across the city. PSPCL directed executive engineers and sub-divisional officers to step in for critical operations, from managing substations to repairing faults, in a bid to keep the system running.
Electricity-related complaints surged 47% in 24 hours — from 14,563 on Monday to 21,433 on Tuesday. Aggar Nagar topped the list with 3,370 complaints, followed by City West (3,226), Model Town (2,795) and Focal Point (2,673).
A major fault in 66 KV transmission lines left large swathes of the Estate division, including Amarpuri, Daba Pind, Maan Nagar, and GT Road areas, without electricity for over 14 hours.
With many divisional offices deserted, services like bill payments, corrections and new connections stalled. Sunder Nagar saw 89% of its staff on strike, and Focal Point 81%.
Union leaders blamed the deadlock on “unmet commitments” from the PSPCL management despite agreements reached on June 2 in the presence of the power minister. Their demands range from regular recruitment and equal pay to removal of a 12% interest clause on some employees and clearance of pending allowances.
Chief engineer Jagdev Hans admitted that Tuesday’s downpour worsened the situation but said the corporation was “managing with the available manpower.”
