The sleeping hours for M. Marichamy of Saptur in the district have changed in the last couple of months. The reason is the erratic power cut in his village, which is not allowing him to have a peaceful sleep during night as he has to go to agriculture fields to switch on motor to water the fields.
Like him several farmers in and around Saptur are facing the problem. Mr Marichamy says: “Any crop needs water without break. Our village is dependent on well irrigation, as the channels are not filled during the recent rains. Even if the channels brim with water they are able to serve only 60 acres in this area. Whereas, there are more than 100 acres here so we have to depend on well irrigation.
Three sessions
The power cut, which is divided into three sessions — morning two hours, afternoon two hours and evening and night one hour each has affected watering the fields,” he says.
In his opinion, if the electricity department wants to suspend power supply for over five hours, let it be at one go.
For example, if there is a power shutdown or a load shedding continuously for five hours from 2 p.m. at least the farmers could finish all their works in the morning itself and get ready for work when power supply resumed.
“Make provisions”
Similarly, the State PWD authorities should make provisions in the channels where the excess water from any channel automatically drained into another nearby channel.
This would help in better distribution of available water and to a great extent help in reducing wastage of the precious commodity, water, he suggests.
If that is the complaint from the farmers, the condition of cotton mill owners in Rajapalayam, Virudhunagar district is no better. S.R. Dhanushkodi Raja, one of the mill owners, says in their area power cut is there for eight hours a day.
While four hours from 6 p.m. to 10 p.m. the mills are restrained from using the electricity, the remaining four hours of power cut are distributed throughout the day. The frequent power cuts in the district had a strong impact on the operation of cotton and ginning mills here.
With the fluctuating price of fuel, having a generator to run the mill has also become economically unviable, he says.
Due to the power cut, the mills could not afford to have labour without work. Apart from that the power cut affects production of quality materials, which, in turn, results in lower sales in the market, adds Mr Raja. It looks like the worst days are yet to come, according to officials in the TANGEDCO.
