The State Government’s decision to provide 24-hour power supply to agriculture sector from the New Year appears to have had its share of concerns.
Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao has taken a serious note of the damage that could happen to the agriculture sector if farmers are not educated about the precautionary measures that should be taken to ensure that uninterrupted power supply yields them good results. Foremost among the concerns was the potential problem that could come with the auto starter system that ensures that pumpsets are charged as and when the power supply was on.
The Chief Minister recalled that farmers opted for the auto-starter system in the past owing to the uncertainty relating to power supply in the erstwhile united State. Farmers, however, continued with auto-starters even after the bifurcation of the State and subsequent measures to ensure that farm sector was provided with power supply during fixed hours.
Adequate supply
Given the adequacy of power supply and the government’s commitment to provide 24-hour supply to the farm sector, continuing with auto-starters would mean that pump sets continuously draw ground water resulting in faster depletion of the precious resource.
“This will in turn mean that farmers will not have sufficient water in spite of availability of power during the crucial time and this could potentially result in more harm to farmers than good,” the Chief Minister opined.
The issue figured during a meeting convened by the Chief Minister to review the situation that could arise once the uninterrupted power supply becomes a reality. The power utilities are geared up to meet the requirement after spending over ₹12,000 crore on improving the transmission and distribution systems across the State.
The meeting discussed about the pros and cons of the new initiative threadbare and officials concerned informed the Chief Minister that borewells which were deeper could cast a negative impact on those at shallow depths if auto starter system in the pump sets continued. The feedback obtained from the farmers too had pointed out to this problem that could be a major dampener to the new initiative.
Mr. Chandrasekhar Rao, however, exuded confidence that farmers would not indulge in any steps that could adversely impact them. The officials concerned should take up an elaborate campaign to educate farmers about the harm that could be inflicted by the auto starters if the farmers continued to use them.
“Farmers should be educated about the quantum of water that should be drawn for the specific crops. I am confident that they (farmers) will cooperate with the Government in following the guidelines given by the officials in this direction,” he said.
The Chief Minister had also assured the power utilities that the Government would bear the total expenditure incurred by them on account of the 24-hour supply to farm sector and it was committed to provide the necessary expenditure that could be incurred from January from the current budget itself and additional allocations would be made from the next budget.
