Patiala: Harjit Singh Sekhon, President of the Technical Services Union (Bhangal) Circle Patiala, and Vijay Dev, former Vice President (Punjab), stated in a joint press statement that on June 5, 2026, DSP Rajiv Singla, acting under orders from the Punjab government, carried out a brutal lathi-charge on apprentice linemen. The state committee of the union has strongly condemned this action.
Following the state committee’s directives, Patiala Circle members participated in a protest at the Head Office on June 6, 2026. The state committee further decided that on June 8, 2026, effigies of the Punjab government would be burned at the sub-division level across Punjab to protest the lathi-charge and express solidarity with the apprentice linemen.
In compliance with this decision, workers under Patiala Circle burned effigies of the Punjab government across all sub-divisions today. This protest was led by union leaders including Vijay Dev, Harjit Singh, Jatinder Singh Chadha, Gurdeep Singh, Inderjit Singh, Karamjit Singh Bahadurgarh, and Bhagwan Singh.
The union has demanded that legal action be taken against DSP Rajiv Singla and the other police personnel involved in the lathi-charge, and that they be given appropriate punishment. Expressing their solidarity with the apprentice linemen, the workers of Patiala Circle also demanded that the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government immediately recruit unemployed linemen into the Electricity Board and reduce the excessive workload on existing staff.