Govt committed to free power for farmers: Reddy

Nuzvid, Andhra Pradesh, Apr 9 (UNI) Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y S Rajasekhar Reddy today said his government was committed to supply seven-hours of free power for farmers, every day.

Addressing a ''Prajapadham'' (administration at the door steps of the people) meeting here, he said if necessary, the state government would impose power cut in the cities and villages for giving free power to farmers.

The state goverenment was launching the ''prajapadam'' programme for a fortnight from April 10 in 20,000 Gram Panchayats and 130 urban areas in the state to provide drinking water, free power to farmers, employment and ration cards for eligible persons and paying special emphasis on dwacra Groups.

Dr Reddy admitted that the state government had not supplied enough power to the farmers in the month of March due to heavy consumption and non-availability from neighbouring states.

The state has purchased Rs five crore worth of power per day from other states to meet the state's requirment, he said adding the power supply will improve this month to a larger extent.

He made a fervent appeal to farmers to fix capacitors to their motors by April 30 to avoid burning of motors in case of low voltage.

Dr Reddy said power consumption in the state had crossed 17 crore units per day as against 15 crore units earlier.

The Chief Minister said the DWACRA groups in Krishna district would get Rs 200 crore worth of loans from next year as against Rs 90 crore this year, at an interest rate of 25 paise.

The Nagarjunasagar irrigation project on river Krishna would be modernised with World Bank aid of Rs 2500 crore to enable the water reach tailend areas in Krishna delta area, he said.

Earlier, Dr Reddy laid the foundation stone for an urban housing programme to provide 1058 houses for the poor.

UNI VKR VV MP RAI2001