The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh News : Free power from Naidu days: to say yes or no?

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Thursday, Jul 08, 2004

Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh

Free power from Naidu days: to say yes or no?

By Our Staff Reporter

HYDERABAD, JULY 7. A case of farmers buying transformers themselves by pooling money, drawing power for their agricultural pumpsets free of cost and taking them to Government workshops for repairs was discussed in the Assembly on Wednesday.

The Finance Minister, K. Rosaiah, told the House that about 4,000 agricultural connections operated illegally for years under 305 such transformers in Mahabubnagar district. He ruled out regularising them and said the matter would be probed by a technical expert.

The issue was raised by the Samajwadi Party MLA, D.K. Aruna, during question hour. She complained that repairs to transformers were refused at Government workshops whenever they got burnt. She wanted their regularisation or replacement. The TDP MLA, N. Janardhan Reddy, asked the Government to reimburse the cost of transformers to farmers and continue power supply, now that it was free power to farm sector.

While rejecting the demand for repairs, Mr. Rosaiah said this was a strange situation existing in Mahabubnagar under the previous Government. There was no metering of power for the connections nor payment of tariff. He wondered whether the administration closed its eyes to the situation. It could not have happened without the connivance of officials. In normal course, the Government initiative called for levying penalty on farmers, recovery of tariff and action against erring persons. But, the Government would be content with examining `what and where' it went wrong.

C. Narsi Reddy (Congress) felt the farmers did what the Government ought to have done for them.

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