12 hours on paper, protests in the fields

Farmers in several Telangana districts have protested over erratic agricultural power supply, low voltage and inadequate water reaching fields. Reports from Jogulamba Gadwal, Sangareddy, Wanaparthy, Suryapet, Yadadri Bhuvanagiri, Jagtial, Warangal and Mahabubabad record protests, road blockades and demonstrations at substations.

Farmers said frequent interruptions, the absence of a fixed cut schedule and dependence on borewells were putting crops at risk. They also alleged that low voltage had damaged pump sets. Those claims have not been backed in the available reports by feeder logs, voltage readings or crop-loss assessments, so “widespread crop losses” remains a claim, not a fact.

At Yellampet in Mahabubabad, Assistant Divisional Engineer M. Srinivas said the department was supplying three-phase power for 12 continuous hours in Maripeda mandal. He said the demand for 24-hour supply would be taken up with higher authorities. In Palakaveedu, officials said supply was being provided from 5 a.m. to 6 p.m.; farmers said the ground reality differed.

The Congress government’s 24-hour-power promise is now meeting the less ceremonial figure of 12 hours. The department has not published a statewide outage or crop-loss assessment. Farmers, meanwhile, are still being asked to grow with the schedule they get.