Hopes of restoring normal consumer services at Punjab State Power Corporation Limited (PSPCL) offices suffered another setback on Friday after a marathon meeting between the corporation’s top management and outsourced employees ended without any conclusion. As the indefinite strike continued, hundreds of consumers visiting Suvidha Kendras across Ludhiana returned disappointed, with routine services remaining crippled despite electricity supply staying largely unaffected. The meeting, which lasted around two-and-a-half hours at PSPCL headquarters in Patiala, was held between chairman-cum-managing director (CMD) Basant Garg and representatives of the outsource employees federation Punjab.However, with no concrete decision emerging, the federation announced that the strike would continue until the government issues the promised notification on its long-pending demands.Routine work hitThe agitation, which resumed on the night of July 22, has entered another phase with nearly 315 outsourced employees in PSPCL’s Central Zone and around 1,700 across Punjab continuing to stay away from work.These employees form the backbone of consumer-facing operations, working at Suvidha Kendras, meter laboratories, stores, nodal complaint centre (NCC), consumer resource centre (CRC) and Punjab ex-servicemen corporation (PESCO) units.Their absence has severely affected services such as electricity bill corrections, new power connections, meter replacement, complaint processing, record maintenance and other administrative work. Although regular staff have been deployed to keep offices functional, officials admitted that several services continue to move at a slow pace as outsourced employees handle a significant portion of day-to-day consumer operations.Consumers sufferAt several Suvidha Kendras, long queues of consumers were seen waiting for hours, while many returned without getting their work completed.Among them was Surjit Singh, a resident of Punjab Mata Nagar, who said he had been visiting the office for the past four days to get an error in his electricity bill corrected. “Every day we are told to come back later. Consumers have nothing to do with the dispute, but we are the ones paying the price,” he said.Satinder Pal Singh from Dugri said he visited the Suvidha Kendra to pursue his complaint regarding a damaged service wire but was unable to get any assistance. “The staff present advised me to wait until the strike ends. We understand employees have their demands, but consumers are suffering every day,” he said. During Friday’s meeting, federation leaders reminded the CMD about the agreement reached with the Punjab government on May 24, under which eligible outsourced employees were to be brought under a direct departmental contract and the third-party hiring system was to be phased out.They alleged that despite repeated assurances, the promised notification has not been issued.Ordinance to come upAccording to federation representatives, the CMD informed them that the Punjab government is preparing to introduce an ordinance related to outsourced employees during the Assembly session beginning August 3.Once enacted, a proposal would be sent to declare their category as an essential service. The federation, however, rejected the proposal, saying it amounted to another assurance instead of implementing commitments already made. “The government had promised a notification, not another round of assurances. Until that promise is fulfilled in writing, our strike will continue,” a federation leader said after the meeting.Chief engineer (Central Zone) Jagdev Singh Hans said that while the strike has not affected electricity supply, consumer services handled by outsourced employees continue to face disruption. “We hope discussions between the government and the federation will reach a positive conclusion soon so that all pending services can be restored at the earliest,” Hans said. With no conclusion in negotiations, consumers remain caught in the middle, waiting for routine services to resume.