Tamil Nadu   

Farmers upset over erratic power situation

Demand: Farmers presenting a petition to Karur Collector T.N. Venkatesh in Kulithalai on Friday.

KULITHALAI: Grim and precarious power supply situation in Karur district found its echo at the farmers’ grievanceday meeting held at Kulithalai on Friday with a section of them giving vent to their frustrations at the erratic power supply during the deliberations.

“We are not asking the Tamil Nadu Electricity Board officials to say when power supply would be snapped. Only that we are asking them when power would be supplied at all,” questioned Deputy Secretary of the Cauvery Delta Farmers’ Welfare Association, Kavandampatti, R. Subramanian reflecting the mood of the district farmers.

“Dejected we are as power is unavailable when we want that at the most and we are not able to capitalize when supply is restored as the TNEB would invariably catch us unawares,” observed Anbalagan, a progressive farmer from Nachalur.

He and other farmers from the area claimed that there was no power supply during the daytime for most part of last week putting them to untold misery.

“Not just for irrigation, we are not able to get regular supply of drinking water in the villages as the panchayat motor pumps could not be operated during day times and since nobody practically knows when supply would resume, there would be no one to operate the motors when power actually comes,” pointed out Farmers’ Discussion Group Conveners Kulithalai A.V. Gopaladesikan and Valayapatti R. Sathish.

“We had plans to stage a protest walk out from the grievanceday meeting but we postponed the agitation at the eleventh hour and instead are requesting the officials to at least inform us the timing of power supply. Not just farmers, but also the hapless farm workers and the public have been affected by the erratic power supply over the past fortnight,” noted V. K. Thangavel, a farmer from Vellalapatti and Kadavur Union secretary of the Tamil Nadu Vivasayigal Sangam.

The explanation offered by the TNEB officials only infuriated the farmers more as the authorities sought to explain the things away. They claimed that wind power generation had come down drastically, supply was partial from Kalpakkam atomic power plant and that the higher ups would have asked for additional power from the Central Grid, etc. But that did not cut ice with the agitated farmers who simply wanted the officials to be more responsive to the situation.

Support to the farmers came from Karur District Collector T. N. Venkatesh who on hearing their plight ticked off the TNEB officials pointing out that farmers were only asking the authorities for timings to be prepared.

“Ensure that the farmers and the public were informed of the situation and the ground reality, stream line supply of power so that farmers would not lose the benefit of the supply that was being maintained at present,” he instructed the TNEB officials.

Similarly, he asked the TNEB and the panchayat officials to ensure that there was no drinking water supply shortage due to power crisis in the district.

“Efforts would be taken to maintain regular and uninterrupted supply of potable water to all panchayats,” he assured.

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