The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh News : No power supply to villages!

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Wednesday, Jan 07, 2009
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Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh

No power supply to villages!

Staff Reporter

Only 75 villages get 24-hour supply

SANGAREDDY: It comes as a surprise to know that out of the about 2,000 villages in Medak district only about 75 villages – which includes mandal head quarters and towns- are getting 24 hours power supply.And all the other villages that were not connected to the towns in any way were not getting continuous power supply though they were assured to get power for 12 hours from 6 pm to 6 am.

Those villages which are falling under the jurisdiction of sub-stations where four- hour three-phase power is being supplied to farm sector during day time are only able to avail power supply at day time in single phase. The same is the situation across the state, though there might be different reasons for not supplying power to villages.

Powerless

Despite many representatives of the people raising this issue at the highest levels including in the legislative houses and succesive governments’ assurances that the farm sector was accorded the top priority, nothing substantially changed. Though explanations differ, from unavailability of enough levels of power to non-payment of bills to gross nelglect or even discrimination against the farm sector, in deciding the allcoation of scanty power at the State’s disposal, the fact remains that most villages most of the time of the day remain ‘power-less’.

Bills

“Only those villages, where mandal head quarters located, are able to enjoy the luxury of 24 hours power supply. Even in those villages we may go to load shutdown depending on the emergencies,” said an official of power department on condition of anonymity.

In the district, there are 202 sub-stations covering 46 mandals. Out of these, the villages in the jurisdiction of about 20 sub-stations are able to enjoy power supply for 24 hours. The villages under the remaining sub-stations are not that lucky.

“While we are not having sufficient power to meet the requirements, the other side of the coin was that we are not able to collect bills completely from the rural areas. Unless there is a social response from the consumers to supply power, probably we can do just nothing. Even those who’s bill will be not beyond Rs 60 to Rs 70 in the villages are not paying”.

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Andhra Pradesh