DW BUREAU / PATIALA The PSEB Engineers' Association has criticised the move by the Punjab state power corporation limited (PSPCL) management to close down the Ropar thermal plant and hand over the Bathinda thermal plant and Ropar Power Colony land to private players for free. A zonal meeting was held at Ropar thermal plant and engineers from Ropar, Anandpur Sahib, Nangal, and Kharar participated in this meeting. Ajaypal Singh Atwal, general secretary of the PSEB Engineers' Association, said that the Punjab government and the PSPCL management were not able to safeguard the interests of the power sector and alleged that a big land grabbing bid was on in the Punjab power sector. Land of the Bathinda thermal worth Rs 4000 crore was being transferred to private players at Rs 1. Padamjit Singh, Chief Patron of the All-India Power Engineers Federation (AIPEF) said that the government was planning to close down the Ropar thermal units despite the fact these had more than one lakh hours of useful life. The proposals of the power sector experts to establish additional solar plants at Bathinda and Ropar were being ignored by the government. JS Dhiman, President of the Association, said that the PSPCL was already under a debt of over Rs 15,000 crore but there was a move by the PSPCL management to hand over GNDTP Bathinda and the Ropar Power Colony land for free. Instead of reinvesting in the power sector, the expensive assets of the PSPCL were being sacrificed by the management. The meeting criticised the management that instead of hiring regular staff it was bent on reducing the manpower, which would have a direct bearing on the services and revenue of the PSPCL. (editor@dailyworld.in)