Now, Kerala fully powered

KOZHIKODE: Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Monday declared the state as totally electrified and stressed the need to tap new energy sources  to attain self-sufficiency in power  and avoid exploitation by outside agencies. Mr Vijayan used the occasion to compliment all those, irrespective of political affiliations,  who made the drive  successful. The function was held at Government Model Higher Secondary School, Kozhikode. He recalled the times when power supply was limited to a few places in the state. 

“I studied with a kerosene lamp  throughout my college days. Much efforts were made later, when I became an MLA, to bring in total electrification.  However, the project was not completed.  But now we have accomplished the task with  the support of a  good management system and the officials,”  he said. “Many countries are tapping solar power from rooftop panels. Kerala has big houses in almost all the places and government offices  function  from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. All these buildings can be utilised to tap solar energy and the state can  become independent in power generation,” he said. He said power may become costly with the introduction of new energy sources.

The  total electrification bid had started during 2006-11 and not last year, he said and pointed  out the mistake committed by the makers of a short film screened on the occasion. A total of 4, 70,000 connections were made in a year, which is a record.  These  include over one lakh connections for the BPL families at a cost of  Rs 174 crore. The function was presided over by Power Minister M.M. Mani and attended by ministers E. Chandrasekharan, A.K. Balan, Ramachandran Kadannappally, Kadakampally Surendran, MLAs M.K. Muneer, A.K. Saseendran, T.P. Ramakrishnan, A. Pradeepkumar, E.K. Vijayan, C.K. Nanu, P.T.A. Rahim, Purushan Kadalundi and Karat Razaq.