Amidst sever drought conditions stated to be prevailing in few states, the Centre is mulling to designate farming as an essential services on the lines of Railways and Metro networks so that it can get dedicated power supply for the irrigation purposes.
Union power minister Veerappa Moily has told this newspaper that he is thinking on the lines of “islanding” farming sector for consistent power supply.
The metereological department had made it official on Friday that the monsoon this year would be deficient. The scanty rainfall in the foodgrain bowl of India, including states of Haryana, Punjab, Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat and Karnataka, has seen farmers resorting to power backed irrigation back up to water sowing of their lands in the recent months.
Senior officials of the ministry of power have also stated that the overdrawing of power by some of the states, including UP, Haryana, Punjab, had more to do with the urgency in the irrigation needs, which led to the grid collapse on two consecutive days.
Responding to the needs of the farming, Mr Moily said, “There is no provision presently to respond particularly to the rain starved areas. We need to work out a specialised mechanism by which power to the farming sector can be ensured on the lines of the essential services.”
Mr Moily also stated that he of the view that the farming should be included within the class of essential services.
“The process is called islanding where power has to be consistent for essential services. Even the farmers should be included in this so that crops do not fail. I am just thinking why do we not do that,” added Mr Moily.
Even Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, while reviewing the situations emerging out of the deficient monsoon, had directed the ministry of power to ensure dedicated electricity supply to the farmers so that they can save their crops by irrigating their land.
The Empowered Group of Ministers (EGoM), headed by agriculture minister Sharad Pawar, will again meet in the coming week to decide on the measures needs to tackle sever drought conditions in some of the states.