Bangalore:
Resigned to the fate of dark nights and frequent load-shedding during day time, life in Linganahalli in Doddaballapur district has suddenly started shining bright. Now, the villagers are back to their idyllic life as realisation has dawned upon them that it is just a poll effect with the state election commission announcing the poll schedule for taluk and zilla panchayats on Monday.
"We used to get just three or four hours of three-phase power to run our irrigation pump sets and six hours of single phase power. Even that supply was never steady with intermittent power cuts. Power supply in the evening used to start at 7pm and many a time, it used to be complete blackout from night 10pm to next morning. The situation has suddenly changed for the last few days. Now, we are hardly seeing any power cuts. We are getting almost 20 hours of power supply," says Mahadevappa, a resident of Linganahalli.
Krishnamurthy in Rabbanahalli in Bangalore Rural district is a happy man as he no more has to wait till midnight to water his vegetable farm.
"I finish the job in the afternoon as we are getting three-phase power for long durations during the day time itself to run my irrigation pumpset," he says.
The experience during the previous by-elections to state assembly has taught villagers like Munivenkatappa, a farmer in Ramanathapura, how the state government uses power as a tool to get more votes.
"During the by-election to the Doddaballapur assembly constituency, we were surprised to see Konaghatta and Kodigalli coming under the limits of that constituency enjoying 24 hour power supply, as the BJP government was determined to woo the voters, while our village, though very close to Konaghatta, was plunged in darkness since we were not part of the constituency," he says.
"We are not sure if this will continue after the panchayat polls," say the villagers, recalling their earlier experience when load-shedding returned with a vengeance after the by-polls.
However, energy minister Shobha Karandlaje is confident of maintaining the shine even after the panchayat polls. "We are purchasing 1,000MW of additional power and another 250MW will be purchased during the summer. This is in addition to ramping up the generation from hydel power stations during summer as we have conserved our storage in the reservoirs keeping in mind the increasing demand during summer," Shobha said.
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