Pondicherry: Chief Minister N. Rangasamy said during question hour in the Assembly on Tuesday that it was not possible to supply power free of cost to farmers.

He said that the Planning Commission had been repeatedly asking him to revise the power tariff in Pondicherry.

The Planning Commission was also insisting that the Pondicherry Government set up a Power Tariff Regulatory Authority.

Mr. Rangasamy said that in Pondicherry power was available at cheaper rates. A farmer consuming 10 HP power was levied only Rs. 750 annually. This was equivalent to supplying power free of cost.

Chief Minister said that there would be no justification to seek free supply.

Mr. Rangasamy said the Government was in an awkward situation with the Planning Commission asking for revision of power tariff. The Government would adopt a policy that neither incurred displeasure of the Planning Commission nor imposed a burden on farmers.

Earlier Industries and Agriculture Minister V. Vaithilingam told R. Anandharaman and P. Arulmurugan (Pattali Makkal Katchi), A. Anbalagan (All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam), A. Marimuthu (Independent), A M H Nazeem and S.P. Sivakumar (Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam) and M. Kandasamy (Congress) that it would not be practically possible to supply power free of cost to all classes of farmers.

He said that now small farmers and those coming under the below poverty line category were getting power free of cost. Mr. Vaithilingam said that once power was available free there would be no protection of rights to farmers.

They would not be able to seek any immediate help from the authorities, whenever there was power breakdown.

This was the experience farmers faced in neighbouring Tamil Nadu. He said as far as Pondicherry was concerned power supply was available without interruption round the clock.

Mr. Vaithilingam said presently 1,500 small farmers were getting free power supply. The Chief Minister said that the Government was sympathetic towards farmers as could be seen by waiver of around Rs 28 crore due from them to the cooperative institutions as loan or interest.

Several other facilities were also available to them. But free power supply was absolutely not possible, the Chief Minister noted.

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail