Faridkot
Bharti Kisan Union Ekta-Sidhupur have decided to hold a protest at the powercom office at Patiala on June 8.
The decision in this regard has been taken in a meeting of Sanyukat Kisan Morcha(SKM),non political, in Gurdaspur on Saturday regarding the demands of the farmers about the replacement of domestic meters,release of AP connections and other problems.
"We had held a meeting about it in Gurdaspur in which we have decided to protest outside the office of Powercom in Patiala on June 8 because the power minister and powercom officials did not sit in the earlier meeting of us with the agriculture minister," said Jagjeet Singh Dallewal, state president of BKU Ekta-Sidhupur.
"The powercom wants to replace the post-paid meters installed earlier for the domestic supply with the prepaid or smart meters. We have already rejected this policy during our protest at Delhi. But now the government wants to implement it from the backdoor," said Dallewal.
"Secondly, the powercom is not releasing the long pending AP(agriculture pumpsets) connections for decades. Rather, the farmers are being exploited by launching various schemes for agriculture connections on their own expenses," said Dallewal.
He further said that some connections to the agriculture pump sets had been released but due to a fraud, now they are being termed illegal.
"In connivance with some employees of the powercom, the farmers were given the connections. The farmers were also made to buy all the electrical parts from particular firms by the conmen and these connections were run. But later, it was found that they were illegal though the farmers had also deposited the required amount meant for the connections," Dallewal alleged.
He further demanded the maintenance of the old infrastructure."The power lines are now old, their length is too much which now needs to be reduced and at places, HTL lines are hanging precariously low which sometimes results in the accidents," he said.
"Moreover, when a tubewell fails, the farmers have to dig up another tubewell in his fields and they have to shift the connection. But there are many hurdles in it. We demand from the powercom that when a farmer has to shift his connection out of compulsion, he should be allowed to anywhere in his fields.The renaming/renomination of ownership of the connection after the death of a farmer or division of the property is also a big problem. It should be simplified," said Jajgeet Singh Dallewal.
He said that because of the paddy season, the issues related to powercom are the need of the hour to be raised and addressed.