CM KCR’s special focus on power sector ensures 24-hour power supply to farmers in Telangana

Telangana is the only State in the country, which is providing 24-hours free electricity supply to 26.96 lakh agricultural consumers.

Hyderabad: The special focus laid by Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao on the agriculture sector after coming to power in 2014 has triggered a complete metamorphosis in the agriculture sector of the State in the last eight years, enabling farmers to carry out their daily operations in a hassle-free manner without any disruption of power supply.

Supply of water and electricity was the main problem faced by farmers in Telangana in the erstwhile Andhra Pradesh. Though previous governments promised free power to the agriculture sector, farmers hardly used to get quality power supply. The energy department in erstwhile AP used to supply free power to farmers mostly at night. As a result, several farmers died of electrocution or due to snake bites while going to their fields at night to switch on pumpsets.

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But after June 2014, the situation has completely changed with the Chief Minister according top priority to agriculture, irrigation and power sectors in the State. This brought much needed relief to farmers as they started getting 24-hours quality power supply along with sufficient water through irrigation projects, officials said.

Within five months of the formation of a separate Telangana in 2014, the Chief Minister paid special attention to the power problem and reviewed the situation with senior officials. He then assured nine-hour quality power to farmers, which was later upgraded to 24 hours of free power supply for the agriculture sector from January 1, 2018.

According to officials, Telangana is the only State in the country, which is providing 24-hours free electricity supply to 26.96 lakh agricultural consumers. In erstwhile AP, three hours of power used to be supplied during the day and three hours at night to the agriculture sector causing problems to farmers, officials said, adding that the credit of 24-hours free power supply went to the Chief Minister.

Since 2014, as many as 7.93 lakh agricultural electricity services have been released and a subsidy of Rs.36,890 crore was given to the agriculture sector for providing free power to farmers. This apart, in the last eight years, the State government has spent Rs.37,099 crore for strengthening the supply and distribution systems to provide quality power to all categories of consumers in the State. Seventeen DTRs in 400 KV substations, 48 in 200 KV substations, 72 in 132 KV substations, 137 in EHT substations and 1038 in 33/11 KV substation were provided.

Power supply and distribution systems have been strengthened to meet the growing demand for electricity and the peak demand of 14160 MW was also met. Industries, which faced difficulties due to power holidays declared in erstwhile AP, were now working fully with the State government supplying power for 24 hours.

As a result, workers were getting continuous employment, officials said, adding that Telangana had become Number One in the country in the growth of per capita electricity consumption. In 2014, the per capita electricity consumption of Telangana was 1110 units and by 2021, it had reached 2012 units. Transmission and distribution losses were reduced to 11.01 per cent from the figure of 16.06 per cent in erstwhile AP. At the time of formation of the State, the solar power capacity was 73 MW, which had now reached 4950 MW.

In addition to free electricity to farmers, the State government was also providing free power up to 101 units per month to 59,6642 SC consumers and 32,1736 ST consumers from 2017 till date. The total cost for free power supplied to these consumers was Rs.656 crore.

Officials said the free electricity up to 250 units per month was supplied to around 29,365 salons of Nayee Brahmins and 56616 laundry shops along with a subsidy of Rs.2 per unit to 6667 poultry units and 491 powerlooms.