Shocking Diwali gift for farmers

• Rural Agra burdens loss of Rs. 36.19 cr.

UPPCL will not pay money for installing tubewells. Indisciplined employees will be terminated on spot. Loss of around one billion in state. Department will bring corporate culture

Richeek Mishra

Agra. Rural part of Agra win the race of consuming power than its counterpart urban areas. Tubewells, flourmills and other various agricultural equipments consume more power than any other electronic material utilised in the city. Uttar Pradesh Power Corporation Limited (UPPCL) loses crores of rupees every year due to some unfavourable government policies and increased consumption of power in rural areas. Higher officials of UPPCL have decided not to provide financial assistance in installation of tubewells in the rural areas. Till now, power department is paying around Rs. 57000 per tubewell while government provide subsidy of Rs. 43000 on it.

The total cost of installation of single tubewell is one lakh. Department has lost Rs. 36.19 crore last year due to installation of tubewells in rural Agra, informed UPPCL General Manager Randhir Singh. Around 6350 tubewells have been installed in rural part of Agra zone last year. When the department calculated the investment on these tubewells, it was shocking as UPPCL has suffered loss of Rs. 36.19 crore, he added. Despite, providing regular and better power supply to the rural areas, department is suffering big revenue loss, said Singh. Now, department will remove those transformers which are not used in rural areas and install them in the city.

Besides, such transformers will also be removed from rural areas, which are installed but do not get power supply, he added. A meeting of higher-level officials was organised recently in Agra to sort out the problem of revenue loss from rural areas. Not only this, higher officials has taken various major decisions in a meeting held at Lucknow on October 12. In the meeting, state government's representatives said that now government would not compensate funds to UPPCL regarding installation of tubewells. According to the sources, department suffered a loss of around one billion in the entire state to install the tubewells during the last year. Now department has decided that the customers have to bear entire expenses of tubewell installation, informed Singh.

State government has given instruction to the department to cultivate corporate culture. Considering the seriousness of the matter, Managing Director of South Zone Kripal Singh instructed his officials to increase profit by collecting more revenue and eliminate power theft and other illegal activities carried out by customers. UPPCL management has also instructed the staff to perform well or leave the department. Sources confirm that department may terminate the indisciplined employees.