Patiala: Police used water cannons and detained Punjab Congress president and Ludhiana MP Amrinder Singh Raja Warring and several party workers during a protest over recurring power outages outside PSPCL headquarters here on Monday. They were later released and no case was registered.Hundreds of Congress workers marching to gherao the PSPCL headquarters tried to breach multi-layered barricades. Police used water cannons after scuffles broke out and took Warring and scores of workers into preventive custody. DSP Patiala Sanjeev Singla said the protesters were later released and no case was registered.Before his detention, Warring called the power crisis a “man-made disaster” caused by “rampant corruption, administrative paralysis and flawed planning” by the Bhagwant Mann-led AAP govt.He alleged farm fields were not receiving the promised eight hours of uninterrupted supply during paddy season, while households and industries also faced disruptions. Farmers were being forced to use costly diesel generators and industries were facing production bottlenecks, he said.Warring also alleged service rules were amended to facilitate the appointment of outgoing PSPCL CMD Basant Garg, an administrative officer rather than a power engineer. He claimed Garg attended office for barely 20 days during his 300-day tenure before his recent transfer.He demanded an audit into the alleged “disappearance” of Rs 7,000 crore from the state’s Rs 22,000 crore budgetary allocation for farm and domestic power subsidies.Warring alleged electricity previously procured at about Rs 5 per unit was being bought through Delhi-based private intermediaries for up to Rs 8.1 per unit. He also questioned Rs 150 crore brokerage on a Rs 10,000 crore loan and Rs 340 crore for raising a Rs 25,000 crore credit line.Rejecting the state’s defence of coal shortages, Warring said Punjab received supplies from its dedicated captive mine. He announced a Congress protest in Chandigarh on Tuesday, led by newly appointed Punjab in-charge Sachin Pilot, seeking finance minister Harpal Cheema’s dismissal over Dalit labourer Gulzar Singh’s suicide.
