Tamil Nadu - Coimbatore   

`Stop sending notices to farmers on power dues'

By Our Staff Reporter

COIMBATORE, APRIL 5. The Tamizhaga Vivasayigal Sangam has urged the Tamil Nadu Electricity Board (TNEB) to stop sending notices to farmers asking them to pay the dues for agricultural pumpsets.

Talking to presspersons here recently, the president of the Sangam, M.R. Sivasamy, said that at a time when the State government had announced that free power scheme would continue, the TNEB was directing the ryots to remit the dues for the half-yearly period on or before April 15. He contended that they would not be able to pay the tariff in view of the drought conditions prevailing in the State.

"The Government is taking steps to reimburse Rs. 625 per pumpset (half-yearly) to farmers. This would cover about 16 lakh farmers who are dependant on pumpsets for irrigation."

Asserting that the Central Electricity Act, 2003, should be amended to enable the State Government to directly compensate the TNEB for the loss incurred due to the free power supply scheme, he said that the present system of sending money order was acceptable to agriculturists.

"Even the DMK has conceded in its manifesto that it will not be possible recover the loss directly. So the only option is to make payment to TNEB and reimburse the money to farmers," he said. Dr. Sivasamy disagreed with the contention that money orders were being sent to farmers with an eye on the elections.

"Initially, the Government sent money orders to small farmers (covering about 7.8 lakh pumpsets). In the second phase, they have started despatching them to other farmers (about 6.8 lakh pumpsets)," he said. "The farmers need not pay the dues as there are no possibilities of disconnection at this juncture," he noted.

As the reimbursement scheme covered only a section of the ryots, he requested the Government to provide assistance to ryots having pumpsets in excess of five H.P capacity.

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