After the Punjab and Haryana High Court granted a stay on the proposed sale of land till March 16, the Power Sector Joint Action Committee (PSJAC) and the Punjab State Electricity Board Engineers Association have announced a series of protests against the government. They plan to gherao the house of Power Minister Sanjeev Arora on March 28.The controversy centres around 50 acres of land owned by the Punjab State Power Corporation Limited at Badungar village in Patiala district, which has been in the eye of a storm.Welcoming the HC’s order stay, PSJAC secretary Ajaypal Singh Atwal demanded that the proposed sale be scrapped altogether, asserting that generating revenue by selling utility land was unjustified.The committee decided to hold seven rounds of protests across the state in March. The first protest will be held on March 6 in Patiala, Amritsar and Ludhiana. This will be followed by demonstrations on March 10 in Patiala, Amritsar, Ludhiana, Gurdaspur, Ferozepur, Khanna and Sangrur circle. On March 13, protests will be organised in Shaheed Bhagat Singh Nagar, Tarn Taran, Muktsar and Barnala.Demonstrations will also be held outside thermal plants on March 17, in Bathinda and Jalandhar on March 20, and in Hoshiarpur, Faridkot, Ropar and Mohali on March 23. A rally is planned outside the residence of Power Minister Sanjeev Arora on March 28.Atwal said the committee had been resisting the transfer of PSPCL land to the Punjab Urban Development Authority for a long time. “Instead, the Punjab Government should release its pending power subsidy to PSPCL and direct government departments to clear about Rs 2,600 crore in outstanding electricity bills,” he said.The HC’s intervention came amid mounting opposition from employee bodies. Before the stay order, PSPCL had transferred 168 acres of land of the Guru Nanak Dev Thermal Plant colony in Bathinda to PUDA in November 2025. The process to transfer another 50 acres at Badungar village had begun after the PSPCL Board of Directors approved the proposal last month. The transfer of PSPCL’s prime land in Sarabha Nagar, Ludhiana, was also slated to be taken up in a forthcoming board meeting.Sources said more than 50 PSPCL properties had been listed under the OUVGL scheme for transfer to PUDA for redevelopment, with an estimated revenue generation of nearly Rs 2,800 crore.Employee unions have questioned the rationale behind transferring PSPCL land to PUDA, alleging that development and monetisation efforts have failed to materialise over the years. They argue that the utility’s land should instead be retained for future infrastructure expansion in view of the steady rise in the number of consumers.