AMRITSAR: The Joint Action Committee (JAC) of Punjab's power sector employees, engineers, and pensioners held their first zonal protest as part of a statewide agitation in Amritsar today in front of the Border Zone Office.
A large number of employees, engineers, pensioners, and farmer unions participated in this protest. The protests were organized against the sale of Powercom’s land/properties, scrapping of the Electricity Amendment Bill 2025 and the demand to set up two super critical 800 MW units at thermal plant Ropar under the state sector.
Ajaypal Singh Atwal, General Secretary of the Engineers' Association , . Parmjeet Singh Khattra, State President, . Davinder Singh, Senior Vice President, Iqbal Singh, Zonal President, Vimal Kumar, Zonal Secretary, TSU, . Kuldeep Singh Udhoke, Harpreet Singh, Pensioners Association:- . Kuldeep Singh Khanna and others from farmers' unions also addressed the gathering.
The Punjab government is planning to sell various lands owned by Powercom in different cities under the garb of monetization. The speakers demanded that the sale process of these lands should be immediately halted and proper plans for utilizing these properties should be put into action.
In order to meet the increasing demand for electricity in Punjab, the central government approved the setting up of two new 800 MW supercritical thermal units at Ropar, however, the state government has not yet taken any significant steps in this direction. The government should take steps to set up these units in the state sector, not in the private sector.
Additionally, the central government has sent the Electricity Amendment Bill 2025 to the state governments seeking comments, which the state government . has not been sent so far.