Power for free in Andhra

Predictably, Andhra Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu’s promise of nine hours of daily uninterrupted power supply for the farming commun...

Predictably, Andhra Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu’s promise of nine hours of daily uninterrupted power supply for the farming community has come a cropper. Not to be outdone Y.S. Rajasekhar Reddy, the leader of the Congress Legislature Party, has said that he would make free electricity available for agricultural operations if he is voted to power. The game of oneupmanship between the Telugu Desam and the Congress is indeed in full swing.

There is no denying that the farm sector is passing through torrid times with recurrent drought and/or floods, lack of a supportive market for farm produce and the growing costs of production.

As if that isn’t enough, frequent power cuts and voltage fluctuations are doing their own damage. Frequent suicides in the farming community are a sign of how desperate things are, especially in the Telangana and Rayalaseema regions of the state.

Story continues below this ad

Unlike in the coastal region, where there is assured canal irrigation, foodgrain production here is dependent on some one-and-a-half million pumpsets lifting borewell water. Thus, a farmer in the uplands invests at least eight times of what his counterpart in the coastal region does — an indirect reflection on the dismal failure of the government to create adequate irrigation facilities in the arid zones.

But is free power any solution? The Naidu government has shot down the proposal on the grounds that it will mean that the state government will have to bear a whopping Rs 2,000 crore. There are other adverse fall-outs to, including the distinct possibility of the World Bank withdrawing its patronage, thereby hitting economic growth.

Naidu cites in his defence the recent case of Congress-governed Punjab withdrawing the facility and questions why no other Congress state has gone for it. Interestingly, rivals of Rajasekhar Reddy in the Congress party concur with the chief minister’s view. In fact, the Congress party high command itself fudges the issue, with champions of liberalisation within the party disfavouring the idea of free power.

This apart, supplying free power also has the inherent risk of even rich farmers misusing it at great ecological cost. The state government must consider alternative measures to help the small and marginal farmers. For instance, it could consider metering all pump sets and evolving a graded system by which low-end farmers get power at cheaper rates.