Telangana: 24X7 Free power helps farmers improve production
The availability of uninterrupted power supply to the agriculture sector created a strong ecosystem to strengthen the rural economy, particularly the agricultural and aqua-based activities in the State.
Hyderabad: The decision to provide 24X7 free power supply to the agricultural sector by Telangana government five years ago has started bearing fruits and helping farmers to transit from traditional rainfed systems to irrigated agriculture and ramp up production, food security and livelihood opportunities. The Telangana government on January 1, 2018 launched a round-the-clock power supply to the State’s 2.3 million farmers free of cost and since then there has been a drastic rise in the production of crops and income of farmers in the State.
The availability of uninterrupted power supply to the agriculture sector created a strong ecosystem to strengthen the rural economy, particularly the agricultural and aqua-based activities in the State.
In fact, Telangana is the only State in the country which is supplying free power to the agriculture sector round the clock . In the last five years the number of agricultural connections in the State has gone up to about 27.18 lakh from 19.03 lakh at the time of formation of the State due to availability of continuous free power.
The State government launched the 24X7 power supply on trial basis on July 17, 2017 in erstwhile Medak, Nalgonda and Karimnagar districts and then on November 6, 2017 23 lakh pump sets in the State got 24X7 power on experimental basis and finally on December 31, 2018 the free power scheme was launched on a grand scale. Since then the State government has been taking steps to assure uninterrupted power supply to not only the agriculture sector but also other sectors too.
The State government had spent Rs 36,890 crore in the last eight years to provide free power to farmers and another Rs 37,911 crore to strengthen the distribution network to ensure quality and uninterrupted power supply to all sectors. State government was annually paying Rs.10,000 crore for supplying power to the agriculture sector apart from other subsidies. In fact, the discoms were spending Rs 70,000 on each agricultural connection.
According to TSTRANSCO and TSGENCO Chairman and Managing Director D Prabhakar Rao at the time of formation of Telangana State it was difficult to supply power even for three hours during the day and three hours at night to agriculture sector, however, due to the special focus laid by Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao on the power sector, the power shortage issue was resolved and now, Telangana is the only State in the country to provide 24×7 quality power to all sectors.
According to energy department officials, currently there are 23 400 KV sub-stations, 220 KV sub-stations totalling 48, 132 KVsub-stations numbering 250, 137 EHT(Extra High Tension) sub-stations, 11,107 CMK EHT lines, and 33/11 kv sub-stations numbering 3191 in addition to 3.65 lakh DTRs(Dynamic Thermal Rating) to improve distribution network. This enabled the State to meet even peak power demand of 14,160 MW without power disruptions.
Even those who stated that the round-the-clock power supply scheme might prove counter-productive to the farming community rather than actually benefiting them and will deplete groundwater levels faster as there would be absolutely no control on the usage of agriculture pump sets were now appreciating the efforts of Telangana government. The success story of Telangana has raised the demand of free power to agricultural sector across the nation. Chief Minister Chandrashekhar Rao has already announced that if Bharat Rashtra Samithi alliance forms a government at the Centre the scheme would be implemented in all the States in the country.
