24-hour power supply to farm sector from Dec 31

State government’s ambitious scheme to supply 24-hour power to agriculture sector will kickstart from December 31 midnight at 12:01 hours. Speaking at a review meeting on the arrangements made for the scheme so far, Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao asked the Energy Department officials to ensure that a comprehensive plan is in place to ensure that the farmers get more benefits.

He cautioned the officials over the use of auto starters at pump sets which would result in depleting ground water, thus doing more harm than good for the farmers.  Despite availability of power, the farmers will be left with no water for the standing crops, he added.

K Chandrashekar Rao is hopeful that once the farmers understand the harm of having auto starters they will voluntarily remove them. The Chief Minister asked



agriculture officers, power officials, public representatives, Ministers, MLAs to tour villages and conduct meetings in this regard.

Besides removing auto starters, the Chief Minister said the farmers should be educated on how to utilise the water resources judiciously. 

“Our farmers have the habit of utilising the tank water according to the need and I am confident that they will also utilise the ground water in the same manner,” he added.

The Chief Minister reiterated and gave assurance to the electricity organisations that the entire expenditure for the supply of 24-hour power to the farm sector will be borne by the government.He also said the expenditure on supplying power to the Lift Irrigation Schemes would also be borne by the government.