Major cuts in Punjab, PSEB buys 350 lakh units from outside

Chandigarh, Apr 27 (UNI) With the onset of summer, Punjab today faced major power cuts all over the state, while the Punjab State Electricity Board (PSEB) continued buying power from outside.

There were reports of long power cuts up to even 18 to 20 hours in some rural segments in Bathinda, Sangrur, Ropar and Hoshiarpur districts.

According to the PSEB, the general supply power cuts in villages remained from 11 to 12 hours.

A report from Ropar said that the rural areas under Kharar, Morinda and Chamkaur Sahib tehsils faced power cuts from 15 to 20 hours, while the urban areas also faced the cuts up to seven hours.

With an average shortfall of 150 lakh units, the Punjab State Electricity Board (PSEB) authorities were making arrangements to purchase power from outside including National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC), Rajasthan and Gujarat, a PSEB spokesman told UNI. Today the purchases were 350 lakh units, which were 125 lakh units more since last week, the spokesman said. He said more agreements were in pipeline, subjected to the availability of corridor for power supply.

The PSEB officials maintained that there were cuts for only three hours in Patiala, Bathinda, Jalandhar, Amritsar and Ludhiana cities, but the industrialists were hit by surprise cuts of two to three hours each at different intervals, besides a compulsory weekly off.

In Ludhiana, the industrialists, who already faced a weekly power supply off, expressed their resentment over the surprise cuts every day for the last one week.

''We are fed up with the surprise power cuts at different intervals as we have to pay the daily wages to the workers whether there is any work or not,'' said Inderjit Singh, the president of the Chamber of Industrial and Commercial Undertaking in Ludhiana.

According to the PSEB instructions, the general supply power cuts in villages would remain for 11-12 hours till alternative arrangements were made, the spokesman said.

In rural areas, the three-wire supply would have a power cut for six hours and the four-wire supply for five hours.

UNI PS MP PM1748