Chief Minister M K Stalin said on Saturday that the Tamil Nadu government made a record by delivering one lakh free electricity connections to farmers in less than a year and ensuring the involvement of an equal number of ryots in improving the state's agriculture prospects.
He described it as "a very huge achievement" in such a short period of time, claiming that it vastly outperformed the AIADMK's decade-long rule. "This has been made possible thanks to the efforts of Electricity Minister V Senthil Balaji, TANGEDCO (state-owned power company) officials and personnel, and farmers," the Chief Minister remarked in a video conference with them.
"When energy Minister V Senthil Balaji proposed to deliver one lakh free power connections to farmers in a year, many questioned if the goal could be met. Even I had my doubts. However, the Minister has demonstrated that he is capable of meeting the goal" CM Said.
He launched the initiative on September 23, last year, after saying that he would provide one lakh new connections to farmers. On that day, he gave sanction orders to ten farmers. In less than a year, the government had achieved the goal. "Not only will the action benefit one lakh farmer households, but it would also help the agrarian development. The achievement is tremendous when regarded in this way "Stalin said.
Farmers had to pay for the electricity they used until 1990. At the time, there were 12,09,543 connections. M Karunanidhi, the former Chief Minister said that he would offer free electricity connections to farmers to boost agricultural output and promote farmers' well-being. Between 2001 and 2006, the government gave around 1,62,479 connections. However, the then DMK government provided 2,09,910 connections between 2006 and 2011, with 77,158 connections granted to farmers in the 2010-2011 fiscal year alone, according to the Chief Minister.
However, during its ten years in charge, the AIADMK administration only managed to secure 2,21,579 connections between 2011 and 21. "That is, just 22,100 connections were made per year on average. Those who applied were not given any new connections "Stalin said.
"Launching a scheme is not an achievement, but ensuring that the benefits reach the intended beneficiaries is. Despite the epidemic and the northeast monsoon's hardships, the links were up and running by March "he stated.
As a result, the number of farmers receiving free power connections jumped to 22.80 lakhs from 21.80 lakhs, bringing the total acreage under cultivation to 2,13,107 acres, he said.
