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DMK will not scrap free power scheme for farmers despite ordinance

The central ordinance on the power regulatory commission was aimed at pressurising the ruling Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam in Tamil Nadu to either withdraw the decade-old free power supply scheme for farmers or face a major financial crisis, Electricity minister Arcot N Veerasamy told the state assembly today.

Replying to a special mention raised by C Gnanasekaran (Tamil Maanila Congress) and six others, Veerasamy said the free power scheme for farmers was being implemented with the help of the revenue of the Tamil Nadu Electricity Board and a state government subsidy of Rs 5 billion.

Veerasamy refuted Union Power Minister Rangarajan Kumaramangalam's contention that the ordinance did not envisage withdrawal of free power to farmers.

He said, according to the terms of the ordinance, the entire subsidy, amounting to Rs 20 billion, would have to be borne by the state government. This would result in a financial crisis, inevitably leading to the withdrawal of the free power supply scheme for farmers, he pointed out.

Asserting that the state government was committed to the scheme as long as the DMK was in power, he said as per Chief Minister M Karunanidhi's suggestion, an all-party meeting would be held soon to discuss all the ramifications of the issue.

Reading out excerpts from the ordinance, Veerasamy said the ordinance had stipulated that no consumer or class of consumers would be charged less than 50 per cent of the average cost of energy supply.

The ordinance made it clear that the state government could allow the farm sector to be charged less than 50 per cent only on the condition that such charges would be allowed for three years, he pointed out.

The ordinance also stipulated that, as per the directive of the state electricity regulatory commission, the state government would have to compensate the subsidy granted to any consumer or class of consumers, he added.

Veerasamy said the draft bill on power tariff formulated by the previous United Front government at the Centre had been less severe than the ordinance. The draft bill had fixed 50 paise as a minimum tariff for any class of special consumers and allowed cross-subsidisation, he recalled.

He said responding to the draft bill, Karunanidhi, on November 13, had wanted a review of several of its clauses to protect the free power supply scheme for farmers and hut-dwellers in Tamil Nadu. An official letter as per Karunanidhi's directive had been despatched to the Centre the very next day, he recalled.

Karunanidhi too charged Kumaramangalam with deliberately distorting facts to serve narrow political interests in the controversy over the recent ordinance which, he said, envisaged withdrawal of the free power supply scheme for farmers.

Intervening in the debate on a special mention made by Gnanasekaran in the state assembly, he rejected Kumaramangalam's claim that state Law Minister Aladi Aruna was a party to the decisions taken at the December 1996 chief ministers conference on power to establish state-level power regulatory commissions on which the ordinance was based.

Reading out excerpts from newspaper reports of Aruna's conference speech, the chief minister said Aruna had stoutly opposed any move to withdraw the free power supply scheme for farmers in the state, as it would lead to a slump in food production and create law and order problems. The ruling DMK stood by the scheme and will continue to stand by it, he asserted.

While welcoming the emphasis on power development and reduced losses in transmission and distribution, Aruna had stated that state governments should be allowed to decide power tariffs and subsidies, he added.

UNI

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