Reiterating his commitment to farmers’ welfare, Punjab Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh on Monday sought the support of the state’s Kisan Unions to check power theft and create awareness on judicious use of the fast depleting ground water.

Capt Amarinder, chairing a meeting with the delegation of Kisan Sangharsh Committee (Pannu Group), expressed deep concern over the alarming trend of power theft, which he stressed the need to arrest in order to make PSPCL economically viable pointing that the situation was particularly “alarming in the border areas”.

The Chief Minister urged the farmers to bring any incident of power theft to the enforcement wing of Powercom.

At the same time, the Chief Minister assured the delegation that his Government was fully seized of the hardships faced by the farmers and was committed to ensuring their welfare on priority.

On the issue of pending payment of Rs 137.56 crore on account of outstanding electricity bills of domestic consumers up to March 31, 2016, the Chief Minister said that the matter was already under the active consideration of the Government, while directing the Principal Secretary (Power) to thoroughly examine the issue.

It was informed in the meeting that PSPCL had not collected these pending bills so far from various categories of domestic consumers comprising Scheduled Castes, Non-Scheduled Castes, Below Poverty Line and Backward Classes, nor had it disconnected their connections due to non-payment.

Responding to the unions’ demand for Government jobs to the kin of the farmers killed during various agitations, the Chief Minister directed the Additional Chief Secretary (ACS), Agriculture Viswajeet Khanna, to bring the necessary agenda in the Council of Ministers’ meeting.

Khanna said that seven persons had already been given government jobs and the remaining three would also be offered jobs immediately after the Cabinet's approval.

Briefing the Chief Minister about the criminal cases registered in the past against agitationists, the DGP Intelligence VK Bhawra said that eight FIRs had been registered by Punjab Police and nine by Railway Protection Force.

“Cancellation reports have been submitted by Punjab Police in court in all eight cases registered by it. One of these cancellation reports had been returned by the court for further investigation while the state Government had taken up nine RPF cases with the Central Government. A Special Investigation Team headed by IGP Crime had been constituted to look into the criminal complaints or cases mentioned by Kisan Mazdoor Sangharsh Committee, and investigations were in progress,” he said.