Waiver of electricity bills: U.P. farmers reject govt move, term it conspiracy to install meters

Farmers’ organisations of the state refused to accept the conditional waiver of electricity bills of tubewells and said that it’s nothing but a ploy to install electricity meters on tubewells by the back door. They termed the Uttar Pradesh government’s announcement of the conditional waiver an eyewash.

The Yogi government had announced the waiver of electricity bills of tubewells from April 2023 but made it conditional. The details of the scheme given by the PVVNL show that only those farmers would be entitled to a waiver who pay pending bills till March 31 last year. Another condition stipulates that only those farmers would be eligible to avail it who agree to install a meter on their tubewells.

The third condition given in the notification is that the waiver on bill will be provided only if consumption for 10 horsepower connection remains at 140 units per kw/ per month, and if it exceeds it, farmers will pay the bill as regular tariff.

Veteran farmer leader and president of BKU (Asli) Harpal Singh Bilari said that this conspiracy was hatched to install meters on tubewells as farmers in western UP had resisted this plan of the government. “We will not allow the government to install meters on tubewells,” said Bilari and claimed that soon a movement will be launched against it.

BKU’s district president in Meerut, Anurag Choudhary, described it a fraud with farmers and said, “We have been fighting against installation of meters on tubewells for years and will not allow the government to succeed to do so through the back door”.

Farmers had uprooted meters installed at their tubewells in many villages of Meerut, Muzaffarnagar, Shamli, Hapur and other districts of Western UP.

BKU chief Naresh Tikait and Rajesh Tikait had also staged protests at the office of PVVNL along with farmers and dumped the uprooted meters there.

BKU and many other organisations of farmers believe that the government is desperate to hand over the distribution of electricity to Adani or other corporations, which can’t be done without installing meters on tubewells.

Farmer leaders also expressed dismay over keeping a cap of 140 units per KW/per month. Anurag Choudhary said that at many places in district Bagpat and Meerut, the water table had gone down to 150 feet or more and motors in tubewells require additional consumption for extracting water from so deep.

Meerut and Bagpat district alone have 30,000 tubewells as in many areas irrigation through canals is not possible. According to the PVVNL, more than 5 lakh farmers will get the benefit of the waiver in 14 districts of western UP which comes under its jurisdiction.

The last date for registration to get a waiver is June 30 and before that farmers need to pay their dues till March 31, 2023.