No water for fields, crops hit: PSPCL told to compensate farmer over tubewell connection delay

NEW DELHI: A district consumer commission has ordered the Punjab State Power Corporation Limited to shift a farmer's tubewell electricity connection and pay him Rs 50,000 as compensation after finding that he was made to run "from pillar to post" for nearly three years, leaving his fields without water and severely affecting his crops.What was the issueShokeen Singh, a farmer from Hoshiarpur in Punjab, had an electricity connection for his tubewell. When the borewell dried up, he dug a new submersible bore about 30 metres away in the same land. In September 2023, he applied for the existing connection to be shifted to the new location, paid the required fee of Rs 472 and submitted all the documents the corporation asked for.Despite repeated visits to PSPCL offices, nothing moved. Singh told the commission he was willing to bear any additional cost for extending cables to the new bore.The corporation, however, kept asking him to get a no-objection certificate from the owner of the adjoining land through whose field the transmission line would pass.The corporation also failed to send its Assistant Executive Engineer to appear before the commission despite being directed twice to do so. No explanation was offered for the absence either.What the commission saidThe District Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission at Hoshiarpur, comprising President Naveen Puri and members Prem Singh Salaria and Harvimal Dogra, ruled against PSPCL and held it liable for deficiency in service.

The commission found that the connection could simply be shifted by extending a PVC cable up to 30 metres — a straightforward solution that would cost neither party much. Instead, PSPCL had sent a junior engineer who neither handed over estimates nor a sketch to the farmer, and then arbitrarily insisted on a transformer installation at the farmer's expense."The poor farmer who had applied for shifting of his tube well connection and also paid fees for the shifting of connection about 3 years back could not understand rules and norms of the Power Corporation," the commission noted, adding that PSPCL was "not shifting connection due to minor technicalities and are not co-operating with the farmer."On the NOC impasse, the commission found PSPCL's position baseless and its conduct autocratic. It also held the corporation's repeated failure to send its officer before the commission against it."The adjoining landowner has refused to sign the NOC. Does that mean the poor farmer will be permanently denied a connection to run his tubewell and irrigate his crops? The plea taken by the opposite party has no substance and reeks of autocratic and illogical conduct," the commission said.The commission directed PSPCL to shift the tubewell connection by extending a PVC cable to the new bore, with the farmer bearing only the cost of poles and equipment as per applicable rules.It also ordered PSPCL to pay Rs 50,000 as compensation for the "financial hardships and mental torture" caused to the farmer. Both directions are to be complied with within 45 days, failing which the compensation will carry interest at 9 per cent per annum from the date of the complaint.