Tirupati: Farmers federation demands public hearing on power reforms

Tirupati: The Federation of Farmers Associations has demanded that the government conduct public hearing on the proposed reforms in the electricity sector.

Federation's State president Mangati Gopal Reddy has said that there are no objections to reforms which have direct involvement of farmers.

He asked the government to open electricity accounts on their own and transfer the power charges consumed by farmers into Discom accounts. When the government is giving free power there is no need to credit the cash in farmers' accounts, he opined. When the government pays directly to the Discoms, it will have the right to question them to supply quality power.

Gopal Reddy further said that there is no need to fix meters to agricultural connections to prevent power losses. Instead, it can be fixed at the transformers which will have 2-3 connections and it will avoid fixing of the meters to each and every connection. He said that any changes in the existing power policies would be detrimental to the farmers which may take the State to first position from the present third position in terms of suicides.