The Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) on Tuesday condemned the Congress government for what it called "writing the death warrant" of the industrial sector in Punjab by imposing two day compulsory weekly offs, closing down large scale industries for five days and reducing contracted power load of continuous supply industry by fifty per cent.
In a statement here, former minister Maheshinder Singh Grewal said “it is shocking that even as the industrial sector is trying to recover from the crippling blow of Covid, the Congress government has now ordered its forcible closure. It will be difficult for the sector to come out of this fresh crisis which is a direct result of the mismanagement of the power sector by the Congress government”.
Asserting that chief minister Capt Amarinder Singh should take direct responsibility for the state of affairs instead of proffering excuses, Grewal said “the government did not prepare in advance for the paddy season when the peak load demand is the highest. It allowed the closure of one unit of the Talwandi Sabo plant since the last few months. Despite warnings from the engineers of the electricity utility, no attempt was made to conduct any repair and maintenance work before the paddy season.”
Sufficient electricity arrangements were not made due to the closure of the Bathinda thermal plant as well as two units of the Ropar plant. It is all this which has resulted in the current havoc which has forced farmers to spend crores on diesel generators even as the common man suffers due to severe power cuts”.
Stating that not only the industrial economy had been severely affected, Grewal said even the trading sector had suffered huge losses due to unscheduled power cuts.