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LATEST NEWS UPDATES | Power supply for farm ops cut, Punjab farmers see red -Amaninder Pal Sharma

Power supply for farm ops cut, Punjab farmers see red -Amaninder Pal Sharma

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published Published on May 22, 2014   modified Modified on May 22, 2014
-The Times of India
 

PATIALA: Just days after the Lok Sabha election results, anger is palpable in rural Punjab against the ruling dispensation as farmers are not getting even half the power supply promised by the government. They are forced to spend on diesel to run pumpsets for drawing water from tubewells to irrigate nurseries of paddy, transplanting of which would commence next month.

Paddy is the biggest kharif crop of Punjab and sown on nearly 27-28 lakh hectares area in the state. For the 2014-15 kharif season, agriculture department has fixed a target of 26.40 lakh hectares under paddy.

Farmers are also ruing that seeds of plants sown for green manure, which were supplied on subsidy by the agricultural department to discourage burning of wheat straw, are also of no use as they are not able to provide adequate water to irrigate the crop due to lack of electricity.

Sources in Punjab State Power Corporation Limited (PSPCL) said against the promised duration of four hours per day, power is supplied for only around two hours to run farm pumpsets. Barring border districts, where power was supplied for around three hours, situation remained grim in other areas of Punjab, said sources.

PSPCL is struggling to fill the demand-supply gap of power as nearly half of the total units of state-run thermal power plants are lying closed either due to maintenance or coal shortage. There was demand-supply gap of around 100 lakh units (LU) on Monday and PSPCL had purchase around 57LU to bridge the gap.

"On May 19, around 1,100LU of energy was available with PSPCL against the required 1,215 LU. Power cuts were imposed in various cities and towns to cover the deficit of 105LU. Supply to farm pumpsets was also curtailed. Situation improved today partially, but supply to farm sector is yet to match the promised duration," said a senior PSPCL official.

Sources said PSPCL had purchased around 17LUs on short-term basis from power exchange on Tuesday and that electricity demand was expected to cross 1200LU mark by Wednesday. PSPCL director (distribution), K L Sharma, could not be contacted despite repeated attempts.

Farmer Gurmeet Singh, from Bibipur village of Patiala district, complained, "We are spending 5-7 litres of diesel per hour to run our 20 horsepower tubewells. We need to keep the gensets running for at least 4-5 hours a day to irrigate 7-8 acres of land. Besides paddy nursery, we have also sown green manure plants and pulses. If the situation remains same our already dwindling returns will dip further," he said.


The Times of India, 21 May, 2014, http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/India/Power-supply-for-farm-ops-cut-Punjab-farmers-see-red/articleshow/35399855.cms


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