BRS’s Harish Rao tours power substation, slams Congress for farm supply cuts

BRS Legislature Party Deputy Leader and former minister T Harish Rao launched a fresh broadside at the Congress government on Friday, alleging it has cut farm power supply and failed to address water and insurance claims for Telangana’s farmers.

Harish Rao made the remarks after a surprise inspection at the Sollepet substation in Yadadri Bhuvanagiri district, where he claimed the substation’s operator told him that farm electricity hours had been reduced from 14–15 to just 12 hours per day on government instructions. This reduction has not been officially confirmed by the Discoms or the state government, and no independent figure for actual statewide farm supply hours was published.

He further accused the Congress of failing to provide adequate irrigation and drinking water, citing women “taking to the streets with pots” in some areas, and claimed that thousands of pending Rythu Bima (farmer insurance) claims were unresolved—a number echoed in some reports of delays but not with the specific figure of 4,000 Rao alleged.

Harish Rao also alleged large-scale shutdowns at two state thermal power plants and accused the administration of hiding Singareni coal data from public view. The present state of plant operations and official coal stocks has not been independently established in available reports.

Farmer protests over inadequate power supply have been reported recently at several substations in Telangana, with farmers demanding restoration of “promised” 18 hours of free, quality power—an issue documented in multiple sources but not formally addressed by the Congress government in the available record.

At the time of publication, the Congress government and Chief Minister Revanth Reddy’s office have not issued a response to these allegations.