Punjab farmers and power employees across Punjab held statewide protests on Dec 8 outside PSPCL offices and burned copies of the Electricity (Amendment) Bill 2025, days after disrupting trains with a two-hour rail roko on Dec 5.
Unions fear the Bill will allow private companies to take profitable customers, collapse cross-subsidies, end free/subsidised farm power, and reduce Punjab’s control over its electricity sector.
Agitation leaders have warned of bigger actions, including fresh rail blockades, if the Centre does not withdraw the draft Bill immediately.
Punjab Farmers Launch Stir Against Electricity Amendment Bill
Punjab farmers dig in for prolonged fight against Electricity Bill that threatens end of free power for tubewells
Summary
As Punjab's agricultural heartland braces for winter sowing, farmer unions have intensified their agitation against the central government's draft Electricity (Amendment) Bill, 2025, viewing it as a direct assault on subsidized power vital for irrigation and farming livelihoods. The protests, which peaked with symbolic rail blockades on December 5 and statewide demonstrations on December 8, have united farmer groups, power utility employees, and labor unions in a chorus of opposition, accusing the Bill of paving the way for privatization and tariff hikes.
Rail 'Roko' Disruptions Grip Punjab on December 5 Under the banner of the Kisan Mazdoor Morcha (KMM), farmers and farm laborers staged a two-hour "rail roko" (stop trains) protest across 19 districts, blocking tracks at over 26 locations including Amritsar, Bathinda, Jalandhar, Ludhiana, and Moga. The action halted at least 16 trains in the Ferozepur division, causing widespread delays for passengers amid heavy police deployment and preemptive arrests.
In Amritsar's Devidaspura near Jandiala, protesters led by KMM's Sarwan Singh Pandher squatted on tracks despite barricades, chanting against the Bill's "anti-farmer" provisions. At Makhu station, women farmers from the Bhartiya Kisan Union (Krantikari), including leader Bibi Baljit Kaur, were detained but later released after sitting in dharna outside. Pandher alleged the Punjab AAP government was colluding with the Centre to suppress dissent, claiming arrests were politically motivated.
Building on the rail action, the Samyukt Kisan Morcha (SKM), an umbrella of unions like Kirti Kisan Union, Kisan Committee Doaba, Jamhoori Kisan Sabha, Kul Hind Kisan Sabha, and Bharti Kisan Union (Rajewal), organized protests outside Punjab State Power Corporation Ltd (PSPCL) offices from 12 pm to 3 pm. In Garhshankar, marchers from Gandhi Park to the executive engineer's office burned copies of the Electricity Bill and the draft Seed Bill, 2025, demanding their immediate withdrawal. Power employees' unions joined in solidarity, highlighting threats to public utilities.
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Earlier in November, the KMM led effigy-burning drives at nearly 750 village-level sites from November 15-17, targeting both Union and state governments for "looting public assets" through forced sales and smart meter impositions. In Ludhiana, Kisan Union members rallied against smart meters as "farmer-unfriendly" and corporatizing power rights, capping load enhancement fees at ₹1,000 per horsepower.
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