Chhattisgarh’s Energy Department has started preparations in order to ensure uninterrupted power supply required for irrigation purposes of farmers in the rainfall-deficient districts of the State. This was following special order by Chief Minister Raman Singh to officials to ensure farmers are free of worries in the rainfall-deficient districts.
A high-level meeting was chaired by Principal Secretary, Energy Department Aman Kumar Singh with managing directors of all the state-owned power companies on Tuesday to look at the pending cases of electrification of irrigation pumps and make sure they are addressed immediately and to mandate the connections be provided at the earliest.He also directed to change all failed transformers in rural areas.
Chief Minister Raman Singh had also urged the officials to allow farmers to extract water from rivers and rivulets for the Kharif season crops through irrigation pumps in the districts where ever the rainfall is found deficient.
Singh issued the directives in a video conference with district collectors on Monday evening. The districts of Rajnandgaon, Koriya, Kanker, Balod and Gariaband have received below average rainfall this season.
“In the five districts with scanty rainfall, power supply to irrigation pumps should be ensured,” the Chief Minister said.
The Chhattisgarh Government provided power connections to irrigation pumps of around 25,510 farmers during the previous financial year.
“As per data since November 30, 2003, the State now has a total number of 96,265 irrigation pumps electrified,” according to Principal Secretary, Energy Department, Aman Kumar Singh.
He said that as per the demands made by farmers, temporary power connections for irrigation pumps were also provided.During 2014, 21,680 temporary power connections for irrigation pumps were also provided, he said, the Government is extending grants for provision of power lines for irrigation pumps.The grant amount alloted to each farmer for power supply to irrigation pumps is Rs 75,000.
A total of 240 solar pumping units have been established in Chhattisgarh by the Union Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) under its solar pumping programme for irrigation and drinking water under off-grid and decentralized solar applications scheme.
The Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) has launched solar pumping programme for irrigation and drinking water under off-grid and decentralized solar applications scheme for 1,00,000 pumps during 2014-15.The number of solar pumps installed in various states is as follows-
Chhattisgarh ( 240), Bihar 139, Haryana (469), Assam 45, Goa (15), Gujarat ( 85), Himachal Pradesh ( 6), J&K (39), Karnataka ( 551), Kerala ( 810), Madhya Pradesh ( 87), Maharashtra ( 239), Manipur ( 40), Meghalaya ( 19), Mizoram( 37), Nagaland ( 3), Orissa ( 56), Punjab ( 1857), Rajasthan ( 11,603), Tamil Nadu ( 829), Tripura ( 151), Uttar Pradesh ( 1348), Uttarakhand ( 26), West Bengal ( 48), Andman & Nicobar ( 5), Chandigarh ( 12), Delhi ( 90), Puducherry (21), Andhra Pradesh ( 613)