Rich farmers pay no bill for this poll time MPowerment

The latest announcement goes like this: ‘‘The Madhya Pradesh Government has taken a historic decision to waive off electricity bills for agriculture pumps of up to five horsepowers.’’ In other words, Hemraj Patel will not have to pay the bills for any of his pumps. When asked if this was true, board officials, two days after the announcement, said they needed to check it up. And Etayakalan seems more the rule than the exception. Across the main road from Bhopal to Hoshangabad lies another village, Sarankia. Farmers of Etayakalan are Nagars, here they are Rajputs. According to Chhat Singh, panchayat secretary, in this village of around 200 there are 20 pumps installed on farms, ‘‘All are less than 5 HP. The voltage, when we get power at all, is such that it is impossible to run a motor of more than 3 or 4 HP. Most are owned by farmers with over 10 acres.’’ As for Singh, he owns 8 acres and does not have a pump installed.

Says Hari Singh who owns over 30 acres of land in Sarankia: ‘‘I have two pumps. I have been paying my bills regularly but we rarely get power. Six hours of power — and we don’t even get that much — is not enough during the sowing season.’’ Now the amounts he had paid to the power board over the past three years will be adjusted against his bills from 2004 onwards. It is not even a concession he particularly desires, he would rather get power for most of the day when the next sowing season arrives in November.

Sukhram Rajput is the only farmer we come across with less than 10 acre of land who has a 3 HP pump installed on his land. However, he says he has been harvesting only one crop. And this year, Rajput was unable to sow even that too because the power supply was inadequate for irrigation. In fact, in this entire area, almost the entire set of beneficiaries from the government’s announcement seem to be the prosperous farmers who can afford the cost of installing a pump in the first place.

Chhat Singh admits this but says this announcement will bring electoral benefits to the Congress, ‘‘At least something is being done for farmers.’’ But it is Hemraj Patel who provides the real answer, ‘‘My son is with the Congress but we don’t depend on any party. All these concessions to the poor and the tribals make no sense and the parties should realise that, they only drink away the benefits. In any case they come to us when they need money or when someone in their family falls ill. We are the ones they need, and they vote according to what we say.’’