A total of 5,349 agriculturists have received farm power connections in the past one year in Tirunelveli region after Chief Minister M.K. Stalin assumed office in May last.
In Tamil Nadu Generation and Distribution Corporation’s Tirunelveli Region, comprising Tirunelveli, Tenkasi, Kanniyakumari, Virudhunagar and Thoothukudi districts, 5,349 farm power connections have been given in the past one year to raise crop on 9,237 acres of land.
Of this, Tenkasi district is the major beneficiary with 2,269 new farm power connections followed by Tirunelveli district with 1,154 power connections. Virudhunagar (874), Thoothukudi (751) and Kanniyakumari (301) districts have also been given significant number of new farm power connections.
Mr. Stalin addressed the beneficiary farmers of these five districts through videoconferencing from TANGEDCO’s headquarters in Chennai.
Speaker M. Appavu, Tirunelveli Collector V. Vishnu, Tirunelveli MP S. Gnanathiraviam, Palayamkottai MLA M. Abdul Wahab, Tirunelveli Corporation Mayor P.M. Saravanan, Deputy Mayor K.R. Raju, Tirunelveli District Panchayat Chairman V.S.R. Jegadeesh and senior TANGEDCO officials including Chief Engineer, Tirunelveli Region, K. Selvakumar and Superintending Engineer S. Rajan Raj participated in the event held at Francis Xavier Engineering College, Vannarpet in Palayamkottai along with good number of farmers.
Speaking on the occasion, Mr. Appavu said over 4.50 lakh farmers, who had submitted their applications for free farm connections, were waiting for more than ten years. Mr. Stalin, who had promised to give 1 lakh free farm power connections during 2021 - 2022, had fulfilled the poll promise within just ten months as over a lakh ‘waitlisted farmers’ had received the free power connections.
“Hence, the Chief Minister will give free power connection to over a lakh farmers every year to clear the entire waiting list,” Mr. Appavu said.
The event was also conducted in 12 more centres in these five districts.
