Ludhiana, Aug. 2 -- Widespread power disruptions gripped Ludhiana on Friday as junior engineers (JEs) of Punjab State Power Corporation Limited (PSPCL) continued their protest for the second consecutive day, bringing routine maintenance and fault repairs to a grinding halt. The ongoing agitation has forced the department to stall all new meter connection and replacement requests until August 4, sparking public anger amid prolonged outages.

The strike, spearheaded by the Association of Junior Engineers and the Technical Services Union, began on July 31 in protest against the suspension of two technical staff members from the Aggar Nagar division. The protesters allege that the suspensions were based on a flawed internal inquiry led by sen...