A.P. will save ₹3,350 cr. by fixing energy meters to agri connections: Minister

Govt. will release water early to advance kharif season, says P. Ramachandra Reddy at irrigation advisory board meet

The State will save ₹3,350 crore if all the agricultural connections are fitted with energy meters going by the experience of the pilot project in Srikakulam, said Energy and Mines Minister Peddyreddy Ramachandra Reddy here on Friday. The State will save ₹3,350 crore if all the agricultural connections are fitted with energy meters going by the experience of the pilot project in Srikakulam, said Minister for Energy and Mines Peddireddi Ramachandra Reddy here on Friday.

At the end of the Irrigation Advisory Board meeting held here, Mr. Ramachandra Reddy said that the State now spends ₹10,000 on subsidising power for the farming community and the pilot project showeds that they could save up to 33.5%, in addition to providing accountability for all the operations.

District Collector Nagalakshmi Selvarajan, Joint Collector Ketan Garg and Women and Child Welfare Minister Usha Sricharan along with Government Whip Kapu Ramachandra Reddy attended the meeting.

The State supplies seven hours of power during daytime and inching towards a 9-hour supply, he said and pointed out that during the TDP regime power used to be given only at the night.

Criticising Telugu Desam Party president Nara Chandrababu Naidu for hitting out at the ‘Gadapa Gadapaki’ programme at every place he was visiting, the Minister said: “Mr. Naidu goes on commenting on whatever good work we do. He is under the illusion that he will become the Chief Minister, but I wish to tell him that this will be the last election for Mr. Naidu, and he will be confined to his Hyderabad house thereafter.”

With the likely early arrival of the monsoon and sufficient water stored in several reservoirs in the district, the State government has proposed to release water early to advance the Kharif season, said the Minister, adding that water from Tungabhadra would be tentatively released on July 7, from PABR Dam on July 10, but the actual release dates would be finalised based on the availability of water in Tungabhadra and Srisailam reservoirs.

The Guntakal, Rapthadu, Singanamala and Tadipatri MLAs attended the IAB meeting and raised long-pending issues, including improving the storage capacity of PABR Dam from the current 5 tmcft to its designed capacity of 11 tmcft by acquiring 330 acres at a cost of ₹400 crore and getting a geo-membrane layer provided at a cost of ₹21.8 crore to the bunds to stop leakages.