Kamareddy: Delay in sanctioning agriculture connections worrying farmers

Despite farmers paying DDs three months ago, the power officials are not sanctioning new agriculture motor connections.

Kamareddy: The delay in sanctioning of the new electricity connections to the farm sector is creating unrest among farmers in the district.

According to sources, about 1,250 applications are pending in the district for new connections, but despite farmers paying DDs three months ago, the power officials are not sanctioning new agriculture motor connections. The farmers claim that the power officials would sanction transformers only after the agriculture motor connections were sanctioned and since installing transformers takes a lot of time, they were demanding the authorities to sanction the connections at the earliest.

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Recently the farmers of Thimmakpalli of Kamareddy mandal staged a dharna in front of Chinnamalla Reddy substation demanding installation of new transformers. Such a situation is prevailing in almost all the villages in the district. Farmers are complaining that due to erratic power supply to farm power connections and voltage fluctuations motors are getting burnt in the district. They fear that if new transformers were not installed the existing motors would get damaged due to over load and voltage fluctuations.

According to officials, since the formation of the State, about 31,717 applications have been received for agriculture connections in the district and of them 30,559 connections have been sanctioned. Another 1,250 applications are yet to be processed. Sources say the pending applications are more in Kamareddy, Ellareddy, and Jukkal constituencies. Currently, there are about 1.10 lakh agriculture connections in the district.

However, the TGNPDCL officials claimed that they have no problem in sanctioning agriculture connections or transformers and that everything was being done as per norms. The officials stated that according to the release of quota, the farmers who have paid DDs are granted connections and transformers are installed in those fields. “After farmers pay the DDs for the connection, we prepare line estimations. Once the amount for the line is paid, we install a new line and fix the transformer,” power officials explained.