Ludhiana, June 30 -- From villages struggling to irrigate freshly transplanted paddy to industries facing overnight power curbs and urban residents enduring repeated outages, electricity disruptions have intensified across Ludhiana as soaring demand continues to strain Punjab's power network. With the return of scorching temperatures and peak paddy transplantation season pushing the state's electricity demand beyond 17,000 MW, power officials have warned that load-management measures and intermittent outages may continue until weather conditions improve.

The impact is being felt across the district.

Farmers in several villages have complained of inadequate power supply for agricultural tubewells during the crucial paddy transplantation ...