Nagpur Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, going solar is the only way to provide farmers with uninterrupted power during the day. He also stated that the state intends to switch 30% of agriculture energagry consumers to solar by 2025.
Ambadas Danve, the leader of the opposition (council), questioned how the government will deal with the demand for power from all segments of society. According to the Shiv Sena (UBT) MLC. “We all know that power demand will keep increasing, leading to power cuts etc.
Fadnavis said “solarization” of feeders in all parts of the state will be a priority Feeder units transmit power from generating station/sub-station to distribution points.
“We will lease land within one or two kms of the feeders and use it for solarization of that feeder If land belongs to government, then MSEDCL will get it at 1. If it’s private land, then farmer will get 275.000 per year/hectare and MSEDCL won’t have to do NA (non-agriculture) for that land. If the private land rate is high, then 60% of the ready reckoner will be paid as rent by the state,” said Fadnavis.
“By 2025, our target is to shift 30% of our agricultural users to solar We have already started work under the three verticals of central government’s Kusum Solar Yojna, under which five lakh solar pumps have to be distributed under this” said Fadnavis
He added that solarization of feeders will mean that separate solar pumps are not needed by farmers. “The power being used by a conventional pump will itself be solar” said Fadnavis.
Replying to a starred question by party colleague Pravin Datke, the Dy CM said under the state’s Krushi Pump scheme total 57194 connections are pending They are under the paid-pending category which means paid but not connected. We have completed 19.000-odd connections and by 2023 entire backlog will be cleared by using funds from supplementry grants,” said Fadnavis
MLC Abhijit Wanjarri said that subsidies given to farmers are funded more or less by the revenue which comes from bill collections of high value consumers. “But in Jalgaon Aurangabad. Bhinwandi etc. companies like Adani have been granted licence by state government to operate, so if that happens then will state government get the revenue? And if not, how will we fund farmers subsidies?” said WanjarriMLC
Fadnavis said The licence was given to Adani during the previous government’s tenure But do note that permission is given by the regulator not state government He also explained how the transmission and distribution (T&D) network of the state-owned companies is being monetized.
