Farmers demand free electricity

Coimbatore: The Tamil Nadu Farmers Association, associated with the All India Kisan Sabha (AIKS), on Monday petitioned the collector demanding free power to farmers.
President of the association S Palanisamy petitioned collector K Rajamani saying that the government has not given connection to any farmer, who had applied for free power, since 2000. “In 2017, it announced a tatkal scheme for farmers who could pay 2.5 lakh to Rs 4 lakh, depending on their pumpset’s capacity, a one-time fee power scheme for the rest of their lives,” he said. “It has been repeating the scheme for the last three years and have given around 40,000 new farmers electricity.”
Free power will truly be free only if it requires no advance payment or no one-time fee, said Palanisamy.TNN