The Hindu : Tamil Nadu News : Power supply to ryots will not be disconnected: EB

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Apr 23, 2004

Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu

Power supply to ryots will not be disconnected: EB

By T. Ramakrishnan

CHENNAI, APRIL 22. Even as farmers in the State are apprehensive of possible action by the Tamil Nadu Electricity Board (TNEB) for non-payment of farm connection consumption charges, the Board does not propose to resort to disconnection of supply, according to present indications.

In parts of the Cauvery delta, agriculturists have been told by the Board's field staff to pay their dues immediately, failing which they will have to face disconnection, says a senior farmer leader. He also points out that most of the farmers have not received financial assistance disbursed by the Government through postal money order (MO) to enable them to pay the consumption charges.

However, sources in the TNEB say that unless specific instruction in writing is issued to the field staff, disconnection should not be resorted to. This is the tradition of the Board, they explain, adding that it is aware of difficulties with which farmers work and the need to treat their case `humanely.'

The Revenue department, which coordinates transmission of money orders to the farmers, says it has made arrangements for despatching them to nearly 75 per cent of the beneficiaries.

According to the TNEB, there are nearly 15.3 lakh farm connections, all originally covered under the free power supply scheme.

In March last year, the Tamil Nadu Electricity Regulatory Commission (TNERC) ordered levy of Rs. 250 per HP per annum on agricultural connections. Subsequently, the Government came up with a scheme of income support to small and marginal farmers. These two categories number around nine lakhs. Early this year, the Government decided to extend it to big farmers.

For the first half of the financial year 2003-04, about 98 per cent of the farmers paid their dues totalling Rs. 100 crores in October-November.

Given the confusion over the transmission of money orders, the farmers argue that the existing scheme of sending the assistance money through money orders could be scrapped and instead, the Government can adopt "book adjustment," which will help it save on labour and commission charges paid to the Postal department.

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