No need of free power to agriculture sector, says K Chandrasekhar Rao

Hyderabad: Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao on Friday said there would not be any need to provide free power to the agriculture sector in the state once the irrigation projects being taken up by the government are completed. Speaking in the Legislative Assembly, Mr Rao said that free power was being provided since Telangana is a drought-prone state and lack adequate irrigation facility for agriculture, forcing farmers to depend on borewells that require huge amount of unaffordable power.

“Once we complete all our irrigation projects as planned, the drought problem will be resolved and there will be no need to provide free power to the agriculture sector,” he said, intervening in the discussion on the 2017-18 Budget. The state at present has nearly 20 lakh agriculture pumpset connections; it had decided to give an additional one lakh connections last October, bringing the total to 21 lakh.

Free power to agriculture has been among the most crucial schemes for any political party since 2004. Former CM Y.S. Rajasekhar Reddy had promised free power for seven hours per day that helped him dethrone the TD government in 2004 after it ruled for nine years. In 2009, YSR had promised to increase free power duration from seven hours per day to nine.

The TRS too promised free power to agriculture in its manifesto for 2014 elections. The TS government has allocated '4,203 crore subsidy in new Budget 2017-18 to provide free power.