Karnataka Congress guarantees now affecting farming community

While the Congress cites deficit rainfall as the reason for power shortage, the opposition slams the government for not releasing funds to purchase coal to energy department on account of implementing the ‘five guarantees’

Hyderabad: After auto rickshaw drivers, private bus and cab operators, now the farming community in Karnataka is feeling the pinch of the Congress Government’s ‘five guarantees’ implementation as there is severe power crisis in the State.

Karnataka is facing an acute shortage of nearly 1500 MW to 2000 MW of power. While the Congress cites deficit rainfall as the reason for power shortage, the opposition slams the government for not releasing funds to purchase coal to energy department on account of implementing the ‘five guarantees’.

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On September 11, private bus and cab operators and auto rickshaw drivers had staged Bengaluru Bandh protesting against the Congress government’s free bus travel scheme for women. They had even demanded a compensation of Rs.1000 crore, citing losses.

As part of the ‘five guarantees’ made to the people, the Congress had assured to supply free power of upto 200 units to households. However, there is an increase in demand for power supply of 15,000 MW this month. Unable to meet the demand, the Karnataka government has reduced the power availability for the year by 3000 million units, according to reports.

In October 2022, the power consumption in Karnataka was 12,000 MW and it has increased to 15,000 MW this October.

To tide over the situation, the Karnataka government is now contemplating taking power from Uttar Pradesh and Punjab. About 300 MW to 600 MW would be taken from Uttar Pradesh and nearly 500 MW from Punjab, the reports said.

Amidst the power crisis, the farming community is facing unprecedented challenges. The Congress government was struggling to supply seven hours of quality power to the farmers and as a result pump sets at many areas had got damaged.

Slamming the Congress government for the power crisis, the BJP has warned that Electricity Supply Companies (ESCOM) offices would be locked, besides agitation if the State government failed to ensure an uninterrupted seven hours of power supply in three phases to farmers.

The Congress government had not released any grant as it did not have money to release the grant to purchase coal, former Chief Minister Basvaraj Bommai had reportedly said at a farmers protest a few days ago.

according to reports, he alleged that farmers were hardly getting two hours of power daily but the power tariff had been hiked twice in the last three months. The Congress government was a “zero-grant” administration as it had not released grants to legislators for taking up development works in respective constituencies, he had charged.

On the contrary, the Telangana government was extending quality power supply to all sectors, including agriculture sector.

Dismissing the Congress leaders’ allegations over insufficient power supply to farmers, IT Minister and BRS working president KT Rama Rao had challenged the Congress leaders to visit any village in the State and touch the power lines to check if the power supply was being supplied for 24 hours.