CHENNAI: Minister for Electricity P Thangamani said in the Assembly on Friday that there was no technology for laying high-tension cable underground to transmit high-voltage power. Earlier, tabling a call attention motion, DMK president and Leader of Opposition M K Stalin said that the farmers of around 13 western districts of Tamil Nadu were staging a protest against the government’s plan to erect high-voltage transmission towers on their farming lands. 

“The small and micro farmers will be affected, to a large extent if the towers are erected on their lands. And there is no rent given to the farmers for the towers erected,” he said, urging the State government to take steps to lay the underground cable for power transmission and offer rent to the farmers.

In his reply, Thangamani said that since a  total of 4,000-MW power was being brought to  Tamil Nadu from Chattisgarh, the towers were being erected. And there is no technology available for laying high-tension cable underground to bring the high-voltage power.

“The government has taken steps to cater to the increasing electricity needs of the State as every year the power need is increasing by 1,000 MW due to mushrooming growth of industries,” the minister said.
In fact, the government is offering better compensation for crops, trees and lands than in the past for the losses caused to farmers, Thangamani said.