Demanding immediate provision of power for 30,000 agricultural connections under Tatkal scheme, and lakhs of applicants under other schemes, farmers, on Tuesday, expressed their dismay by submitting petitions on a mass scale at the offices of Chief Engineer of Tangedco in Coimbatore and Erode.
In Erode, the farmers were led by State president R. Shanmugasundaram, and in Coimbatore by vice-president Arasendran.
Elsewhere in the State, farmers submitted the petitions in Kanchipuram, Vellore, Villupuram, Thiruvannamalai, Madurai, Trichy, Thanjavur and Karur, questioning the undue delay in implementing the Tatkal scheme.
“We have been informed by the Tangedco officials that a government order for clearing the pending applications was expected in a month’s time,” Easan Murugasamy, founder, Tamil Nadu Farmers’ Protection Movement, said.
When the Tatkal scheme was introduced in 2018, the power supply for agricultural pump sets was promised in 90 days at ₹2.5 lakh for 5 HP, ₹2.75 lakh for 7.5 HP, ₹3 lakh for 10 HP and ₹4 lakh for 15 HP motors. Of the over 1,50,000 farmers who had applied for the Tatkal scheme with the money mobilised as loans and were provided with electricity connections till 2022, about 30,000 farmers were still left out, Mr. Murugesan said, lamenting that while uninterrupted 24-hour three-phase electricity were given to industries, businesses and homes, farmers had been neglected for long.
The petition the farmers submitted to the Tangedco stated that they would begin their sit-in strike from October 22, if the demand was not fulfilled.
Published - October 01, 2024 07:33 pm IST
