Finance Minister Anam Ramanarayan Reddy has asserted that the State government has no plans to instal meters on agricultural pumpsets to gauge consumption by farmers.
Addressing a press conference, the Minister said the government would, however, focus on providing the benefit of free power to genuine farmers, which would enable significant reduction in line losses and pilferage. It was proposed to streamline the process in this direction after the unique identification number, Aadhar cards, were issued to farmers.
Mr. Ramanarayan Reddy was replying to queries on the marginal reduction in allocation of subsidy amount to the power sector at a press conference in the Assembly on Wednesday. He said there were no plans to cut down subsidies to any sector and the government tried to strike a balance between different sectors.
Mr. Reddy said the protest in the House during the presentation of the budget was a new experience and no Finance Minister had witnessed such scenes in the past. “This is a totally new experience and my successors will hopefully learn from this,” he said.
