Karnataka - Bangalore   

Institute to replicate PRESK in State

By Our Staff Reporter

BANGALORE, OCT. 8. The State Government has agreed to transfer the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID)-sponsored Participatory Rural Energy Services in Karnataka (PRESK) initiative to a new cell to be created within the Mahatma Gandhi Institute of Rural Energy and Development (MGIRED).

A press release from USAID said here on Thursday that the institute would assume responsibility for replicating PRESK throughout the State, it said. The pilot project, which started in January 2003, had succeeded in training several gram panchayat members in four taluks in managing electricity distribution and bill collection locally with help from the Bangalore Electricity Supply Company (BESCOM), the release said.

In November 2002, USAID and the State Government discussed potential ways of improving electricity distribution in villages, including using the agency's experience in Bangladesh, where some success stories were to be found. Under its South Asia Regional Initiative for Energy Cooperation and Development programme, USAID offered to pay for a pilot project to try improving electricity distribution and decentralising government services, the release said. The result, PRESK focussed on poor power quality and supply, rural sector subsidies, water resources, and farming practices in four taluks comprising 112 gram panchayats. Starting 2003, USAID, the Government, and BESCOM held public meetings and workshops to train gram panchayat members and farmers in electricity supply support services and managing available water better, the release said.

Representatives from the Bangladesh Rural Electricity Board and Karnataka's Hukkeri Electric Cooperative Society visited the gram panchayats to demonstrate how rural electricity supply was handled. Local surveys of water usage and crop revenues were conducted, and participants were taught to manage electricity billing and collections locally. PRESK also commissioned a Kannada film by the producer-director, Suresh Heblikar, to dramatise the situation farmers faced in Karnataka and help motivate the gram panchayats to become involved in self-management of resources. A model resource centre was established in Gubbi taluk to provide farmers with information on water resource management, improved farming techniques, and electricity conservation.

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