Southern States - Karnataka   

BJP threatens protest against MLA

By Our Staff Correspondent

RAICHUR DEC. 20. Members of the district unit of the Bharatiya Janata Party will stage a 12-hour rasta roko here on Monday in protest against the alleged failure of the local MLA, Syed Yasin, in taking steps to improve power and water supply and transportation facilities in the Raichur Assembly Constituency.

Addressing a press conference here on Saturday, A. Papa Reddy, Vice-President of the district unit of the party, said though the Government had taken steps to improve power supply in urban and rural areas, rural people, especially farmers, had been put to hardship due to the failure of the MLA in ensuring that the modernisation of urban and rural feeders was completed on time.

He said the power lines in the city were five decades old. This had affected power supply, and failure of transformers had become a frequent happening. People, especially those living in extension areas and slums, had to face many problems due to voltage fluctuation. However, the authorities concerned had failed to take steps to improve power supply in the city. The situation was worse in rural areas as farmers could not use their pumpsets even during the night, he said.

Mr. Reddy alleged that Mr. Yasin was making false promises whenever farmers gheraoed officials of the Gulbarga Electricity Supply Company (GESCOM) demanding that they take measures to solve the problems in power supply. On several occasions, the MLA had stated that power supply in both urban and rural feeders would be improved as GESCOM had initiated steps to implement the Accelerated Power Development and Replacement Project (APDRP) in the district. However, inquiries with the GESCOM officials had revealed that the project had not been implemented due to paucity of funds, Mr. Reddy said. The APDRA had been sanctioned to take up improvement and modernisation of power supply in eight districts. Works under the project were nearing completion in all the seven districts except Raichur, he said. Though Rs. 8 crore had been sanctioned for the district under the project, GESCOM had not received any funds, he said. Mr. Reddy accused the MLA of failing to take up the matter with the Government.

Mr. Reddy said the MLA had failed to initiate steps to improve drinking water supply in the extension areas and slums in the city even after a year after the commissioning of the second stage of the Krishna Waters Augmentation Scheme. There was a proposal before the Karnataka Urban Water Supply and Drainage Board to lay new pipelines in the extension areas and slums. However, the implementation of the same had been delayed due to lack of funds.

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