‘Powercom’powerful protest: Punjab Govt yet to oppose Electricity Amendment Bill 2025, privatization fears grow: PS JAC
Kanwar Inder Singh/ royalpatiala.in News/ January 9,2026
“It’s on agitational path Joint Action Committee of power sector employees,engineers and pensioners since 2nd January 2026 onwards against the sale of Powercom’s land/properties, scrapping of the Electricity Amendment Bill 2025 and the demand to setup of two super critical 800 MW units at thermal plant Ropar under the state sector, held its next zonal level protest Dharna today on 09-01-2026 in front of South Zone Office, Shakti Vihar, PSPCL, Patiala. A large number of employees, engineers, pensioners, and farmer unions participated in this protest” Ajaypal Singh Atwal, Secretary, Joint Action Committee of Power Sector Employees, Engineers, and Pensioners
Various Employees & Engineers leaders viz. Er. Ajaypal Singh Atwal, General Secretary of the Engineers’ Association cum Secretary Joint Action Committee and Er. Padamjit Singh Patron, Er. Jatinder Garg Sr. Vice President, JEs Council:- viz. Er. Davinder Singh Patron, Er. Paramjit Singh Khattra State President, Er. Amandeep Jehlavi General Secretary, Bijli Mulazam Sangrashshil Morcha viz. Avtar Singh Kainth, Kuldeep Singh Udhoke, Amit Kumar, Accounts Association, Pensioners Association:- Kuldeep Singh Khanna. Apart from this, various leaders of farmers’ organizations and Samyukt Kisan Morcha were specially attended today Dharna by Dr. Darshan Pal from SKM also addressed the dharna.
The Joint Action Committee leaders said that the Punjab government was planning to sell the valuable lands of Powercom located in different cities of the state by bringing them under a special government scheme, which was a very wrong decision.
“Powercom lands were often purchased under the Land Acquisition Act 1894 and must be used for a public purpose. In view of the increasing demand for electricity day by day, these lands are now to be used for the establishment of new sub-stations and associated infrastructure, modern offices and stores, etc., so that better services can be provided to the public. At the same time, it is due to these lands that loans are given by banks and other financial institutions to Powercom from time to time to meet their financial demands” said the spokesperson of the the PS JAC.
The Joint Action Committee demanded that this sale process should be stopped immediately and instead of handing over the lands to the real estate agents, these properties should be used for strengthening the power infrastructure and its proper expansion.
The Joint Action Committee leadership further informed that the Central Government is trying to implement the anti-people Electricity Amendment Bill 2025 in the forthcoming Budget Session 2026 in a very chaotic manner, after which the way will be opened for corporate to take over of the power sector. This will not only privatize the power sector but also limit the role of state governments. Cross-subsidy will be done away with and the state government will have to deposit the cost of power subsidy given to poor, low-income and farmers on an upfront basis. Private power companies will use Powercom’s existing power infrastructure without any investment and there will be an increase in electricity prices.
The central government had sought review comments from the respective state governments on the draft of this bill, but the Punjab government has not yet registered its protest against this bill. Whereas, it should be strongly opposed by the Punjab Government in the meeting being convened by the Central Government with the State Governments in this regard at the end of January so that the rights of the poor consumers, low income households and farmers are protected.
PS JAC emphasized the need to increase the power generation capacity of the state of Punjab in view of the increasing demand. The Central Government has already approved the setting up of two new 800 MW Supercritical Thermal Units at Ropar. However, the State Government has not taken any steps to set up these units so far. This should be taken up as an immediate priority so as to reduce the dependence on power banking and make the state of Punjab self-sufficient in power sector.
As per the agitational program already announced by the Joint Action Committee, next zonal protest dharnas will be held on 15-01-2026 at Ludhiana and 20- 01-2026 at Jalandhar in front of zonal offices of the PSPCL. In case State Govt. PSPCL Management still failed to do the course -correction, then ongoing agitation will be intensified further to the extent of hold State level protest Dharna in front of PSPCL H.Q., at Patiala.
The Joint Action Committee has further appealed to the state government to immediately reverse the anti-power sector decisions so that industrial peace is maintained within the department, and the state government may provide better electricity supply to the people while meeting the zero electricity outage target in a timely manner.
