Date:25/08/2007 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2007/08/25/stories/2007082563430500.htm

Andhra Pradesh

‘Power’ful woman to visit ‘powerless’ village

Ramesh Susarla

Power supply for a few hours a day is what all they want

— Photo: T. Vijaya Kumar

Unenviable: A banana farmer shows the live electricity wires that are precariously hanging in his field in Tumuluru in Kollipara mandal of Guntur district.

TUMULURU (GUNTUR DT.): India’s most influential woman, United Progressive Alliance (UPA) chairperson Sonia Gandhi, is scheduled to visit this village in Guntur district on September 1, but people here battle to get power at least a few hours a day.

This visit will be symbolical one for the villagers from when they expect their lives to turn for the better where they can get domestic electricity supply for full night and continuous seven-hour supply for their agriculture pumpsets during day time.

Precariously hanging

Every year there is at least one death in the village due to electrocution as all the power lines are hanging precariously in the banana plantations and paddy fields, not to speak of death of cattle when they come in contact with live wires.

Plantation owner M. Sambi Reddy is a worried man as the poles were on the verge of falling on the ground and wires were within reach of any ordinary person standing on the ground.

“On August 11, 2006 my father Kommareddy Sambireddy got electrocuted as the linemen did not care to properly tighten the supply lines,” Sivanageswara Rao told The Hindu on Friday.

The family did not get any compensation from the Government nor the SPDCL, though it was the fault of the company, he pointed out. Power is supplied in three phases for agriculture purpose from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. or from 2 a.m. to 9 a.m. in the alternate weeks, but this schedule is never adhered to, says Armalla Appireddy, Water Users’ Association president.

Even this seven-hour supply is given in two phases and the timing of second spell is uncertain forcing farmers to get up at midnight and switch on motors.

This does not allow water to reach the tail-end land as pumping is not done at a stretch.

There is impact on the crop yield also with only those portions of the lands closer to the pump house getting irrigated abundantly.

There is enough water for irrigation and four or five farmers share one pump house, so some of them do not get water properly for their lands, points out Eda Peddi Reddy.

The only sop the villagers expect from Sonia Gandhi’s visit is streamlined power supply.