Telangana: Power supply delinked from land ownership

Hyderabad: To get an electricity connection, consumers don’t need to present land ownership rights. The Union power ministry has directed all states to remove the land ownership clause to give electricity connection. Union power Minister Piyush Goyal said, “all states are working towards removing land ownership as a requirement for providing connections to give electricity access”.

Hitherto, Transco would not give an electricity connection unless the consumer presented a land ownership certificate. This applied to domestic, industrial and commercial sectors. Due to this, some families, particularly those living in slums, were not able to get power connections.

As a part of the ‘Power For All’ programme, the Union power ministry has decided to remove that condition. In the changed scenario, the power utilities across the country are struggling to sell electricity after the advent of the open access system where consumers can purchase power from any seller and solar power units.

For example, the purchase of power in the open access system was only 5 per cent in 2015-16 in the state. Last  year it increased to nine per cent, and stands at 22 per cent now. Under these circumstance, power utilities are trying to sell as much electricity from state generating units as possible.