Punjab farmers protest power cuts and a sugar mill transfer, June 2026

Who: The Kisan Mazdoor Morcha (KMM-Punjab), whose convener is Sarwan Singh Pandher; unions of the Samyukt Kisan Morcha at the Sheron cooperative sugar mill in Tarn Taran district, with leaders including Harjinder Singh Tanda, Gurpreet Singh Gandiwind and Nachhattar Singh Pannu; and the Punjab government of Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann, with the power utility PSPCL.

What: Power first. A heatwave and peak paddy transplanting pushed Punjab's demand to nearly 17,000 MW on 29 June 2026, with unscheduled cuts reported. Contract workers at thermal plants were also on strike: at the 920 MW Guru Hargobind Thermal Plant, Lehra Mohabbat, all four units were down by 21 June, and about 1,800 contract workers wanted to be engaged directly by PSPCL. By 30 June KMM had launched a statewide dharna. Pandher alleged that a farmer delegation heading to the Chief Minister in Moga was detained despite prior notice. He said farm feeders were getting 2.5 to 4 hours a day against an assured supply, demanded 16 hours for agriculture and 24 for homes, and warned of a chakka jam if the government kept suppressing farmers. On 3 July PSPCL's chairman and managing director, Basant Garg, said that from 27 to 30 June some farm feeders got only six to seven hours instead of eight, blaming a surge in demand and the contract workers' strike, and said supply was normal again, with feeders getting up to 20 hours to make up. Then Sheron. A pakka morcha began there about 21 May against the transfer of the closed cooperative sugar mill's ownership to PUDA and other bodies. Farmers say they hold shares in the mill, so the government has no right to transfer it, and that restarting it would encourage sugarcane in place of wheat and paddy and save groundwater. By day 53, reported by The Tribune on 13 July, there was no official response, and the leaders urged the government to talk.

Where: Moga and other districts for the power protests; Sheron, Tarn Taran district, for the sugar mill morcha.

Why it mattered: The farmers pressed two demands on the same government at once: dependable electricity in the paddy season and the fate of a cooperative mill in which farmers claim a stake. The reports reviewed record no concession to KMM's demands and no change in the government's position on the mill by mid-July.