No Headway Over Advance Power Bills, Bizmen Term Mla’s Claims Misleading | Ludhiana News

Ludhiana: Efforts of Punjab State Power Corporation Limited (PSPCL) to convince businessmen to call off their protest failed as several businessmen in a meeting held on Thursday said the protest would take place as scheduled from Friday.
Industrialists have been in up in arms against the PSPCL’s decision to charge 45-day advance consumption deposit (ACD) or advance bills from them. Payment failure will result in disconnection of power supply to their factories. Meanwhile, AAP MLA from Atam Nagar Kulwant Singh Sidhu has claimed that industrialists need not pay the inflated bills and they could get the bills corrected in camps to be organised by PSPCL.
Jaswinder Singh Thukral, president of Janta Nagar Small Scale Manufacturers Association, who had given the protest call, said, “I spoke to the chief engineer of PSPCL about the issue of ACD on Thursday and he clearly said the decision to charge advance bills for 45 days cannot be rolled back as it is policy matter of Punjab State Electricity Regulatory Commission (PSERC). It is unfortunate that despite topmost officials of PSPCL confirming that there will be no waiver on these advance bills, there are some elements who are misguiding the businessmen by claiming that they should go to camps and get these charges waived off.”
Thukral said, “Both PSPCL and state government are equally responsible for putting this huge financial load on us and therefore we need to make them realise about their mistake. There is no other option other than to stage a protest against this decision. As scheduled, we will sit on a dharna at the PSPCL’s Janta Nagar division office from 12pm to 1pm on Friday. We will also burn an effigy of chief minister Bhagwant Mann. We will also decided on the next course of action against this oppressive order.”
Meanwhile, MLA Sidhu issued a statement on the issue of ADC, saying, “Several businessmen brought the issue of PSPCL levying load security in power bills of their factories, which is not justified. Therefore I met the chief engineer of PSPCL and made him aware about this problem. He assured me that camps will be organised in Atam Nagar area in which the businessmen who have received inflated bills can get their bills corrected. The chief engineer also asserted that no consumer will be charged any penalty and neither the connection will be snapped.”