The Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) today urged the Congress Government to provide nine-hours supply of free power to agriculture pump sets by April 20 in order to protect the remaining crop in Telangana region by supplying adequate water. Speaking during a short discussion on the power supply position in the Assembly, TRS MLA Pocharam Srinivas Reddy said the nine hours of power should be given in single phase. Questioning the government on how many feeders were available at present and how many agriculture connections given to the farmers, he said the villages and cities were reeling under power cuts.
He said though the state government was boasting that it was providing seven hours of power supply to the farmers and thereby protecting them, on the contrary, it was not supplying power as it claimed and supplying power only in three spells of two hours each. Mr Reddy said the famrers were cultivating crops by taking loans from banks but the situation is that the crop they cultivated withered away due to non-supply of seven hours of power to the agriculture pump sets.
The TRS MLA said the state government has to take steps by supplying nine hours of power supply to the farmers thereby protecting the remaining crop. Of the 30 lakh agriculture pump sets available in the state, 18 lakh were in Telangana region, Mr Reddy said and appealed to the government through the Chair to supply power proportionately to domestic, services and industry. Lok Satta President Jaya Prakash Narayan said there was 341 TMC of water in the reservoirs last year which was scaled down to 98 TMC this year resulting in inadequate generation of hydel power. Criticising the state government for not responding timely to generate power, Mr Narayan said the Transco had asked the government to purchase power additionally. UNI