Prakasam: Re-erect the broken poles, transformers, farmers urge power officials
Broken electricity poles in the farms of Maddalakatta panchayat in Peddaraveeedu mandal in Prakasam district
Markapuram: The farmers in Peddaraveedu mandal, who are dependent on the rain and borewells for water, allege that the complaints made to the CMD office through the call centre for repairs of existing electricity lines fell on deaf ears.
According to Peddaraveedumandal electricity department statistics, there are complaints pending from farmers for re-erection of the 207 damaged electricity poles. Most of these poles are broken into half during the heavy winds three months ago.
There are 40-plus electricity poles broke into half and the cables and transformers lying on the ground for months in Maddalakatta, Chatlamada, Chatlamada Agraharam, Masurajukunta villages in Maddalakatta panchayat in Peddaraveedumandal.
YervaVenkateswara Reddy, a farmer from Maddalakatta village, said that they made several requests to local and mandal-level electricity engineers to re-erect the broken poles and transformers as they require power from June-end.
He said they made a complaint to the CMD office through the call centre and urged them to see the power restored to their farms. Jedda Timmaiah of MasurajuKunta said the CMD office forwarded their complaints to local officials, who didn't respond to their earlier requests.
He said the officials made fun of them and asked to wait until the CMD office sends engineers to erect those poles to provide electricity to borewells in their farms.
Mula Satyam Reddy and MulaVenkateswara Reddy of Maddalakatta said Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy was successful in introducing revolutionary schemes for the farmers, but failed to see the ground level officials work for people.
The farmers announced they are planning to agitate for repairs of electricity lines if the higher officials did not respond to their complaints, at least now.
Responding to the farmers complaints, in-charge superintendent engineer of APSPDCL in Prakasam district M Sivaprasad Reddy agreed that there were many numbers of broken poles in the district and added the contractors were not erecting the poles for a few weeks as the government reduced their charges. But he assured that he will see the poles in Peddaraveedumandal to be erected in a week.