15,000 more farmers to get free power connections before Pongal: TN Minister Senthil Balaji

CHENNAI:  After holding a review meeting at Tangedco headquarters in Chennai, Electricity Minister V Senthil Balaji on Tuesday told reporters that 34,134 of the total 50,000 farmers already received free power connections for agriculture purposes and the remaining 15,866 would be given the connections before the harvest festival.

He said, during the previous AIADMK regime, only 2.20 lakh free power connections were given to farmers. In contrast, one lakh power connections were provided within six months of the DMK coming to power in the state.

On the Aadhaar link, he said 1.20 crore power consumers linked their service numbers with Aadhaar. He requested those yet to link it to do so as soon as possible. Responding to questions, he said Tangedco was set to increase its power generation from 33,000MW to 65,000MW in the next 10 years.

Taking a dig at BJP state president K Annamalai, he said: “He can tell if he (Annamalai) has any genuine complaints against me or the government. The DMK government is open and honest, whereas he has been spreading false information among the people.” The minister also demanded that Annamalai produce the bill of his Rafale Watch.

Senthil Balaji also sought to know whether Annamalai was willing to undertake a yatra to condemn the hikes in prices of liquefied petroleum gas, petrol, and diesel.