Ensure eight-hour uninterrupted power supply to farmers: Punjab CM
Darpan News Desk IANS, 25 Jun, 2021 10:26 AM
Chandigarh, June 25 (IANS) Facing massive statewide agitation by farmers over power outages, Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh on Friday issued directions to ensure eight-hour uninterrupted power supply and to purchase deficient power from outside the state at any cost to prevent any supply disruption in the ongoing sowing season.
Chairing a high-level meeting to review the power supply to the farmers during the ongoing kharif season, he directed the Finance Department to release Rs 500 crore to the Punjab State Power Corporation Ltd (PSPCL) to tide over the financial crunch faced amid the pandemic.
Finance Minister Manpreet Singh Badal, who was present at the meeting, assured that his department would release these funds without delay.
The PSPCL earlier informed the meeting that it was facing a severe financial crunch as a result of slowdown in consumption and revenue collection in the last one year due to the pandemic.
Reiterating his government's commitment to providing continuous eight-hour supply to farmers for sowing their crops, the Chief Minister directed PSPCL to purchase deficient power, if needed from outside the state at any cost, to meet the government's commitment to the farmers.
There should be no disruption of power supply to the farmers, he added.
Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) President Sukhbir Singh Badal said the farm economy of Punjab has been endangered by the Congress government with massive power cuts and insufficient canal water, threatening to devastate the paddy crop.
He said farmers were barely getting four to five hours of power and that too in gaps instead of the promised eight hour uninterrupted power supply.
Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) president Sukhbir Badal on Thursday demanded a high court monitored probe into the manner in which the Congress government in Punjab was playing with the people's lives by creating an artificial shortage of vaccines by selling vaccine doses at a hefty profit to private hospitals.
The electronic conversation took place as US President Joe Biden announced on Thursday that India will receive Covid vaccines directly from the US stockpile, the White House said.
The Chief of Army Staff (COAS), General M.M. Naravane, reached Kashmir on Wednesday on a two-day visit to review the prevailing security situation in the Union Territory (UT), the army said in a statement.
"There have been several unfounded media reports that have peddled misinformation among the masses regarding this exercise of national importance," a ministry statement said, adding that the total number of Covid vaccine doses administered in the country so far stand at 21,85,46,667.
The Congress said that it was "appropriate for our initial statement to note that the intrusion by Israeli forces into the Holy Al Aqsa mosque during Ramzan prayers had ruptured the delicate peace in the region".
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