Under fire from opposition over the Direct Benefit Transfer for Electricity scheme, Punjab Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh today said farmers will not have to make any payment nor will they be forced to join this pilot project for agriculture consumers.
The direct benefit scheme was mooted as a solution to the worsening groundwater problem, he said in a statement here.
Singh claimed that contrary to the falsehoods being spread by the opposition, farmers would not be charged for power consumption.
He also announced farm debt waiver for another three lakh farmers before the Budget Session which is likely to be held in the second week of March.
He said under the scheme, farmers will be paid money, in advance, directly into their bank accounts, from which they can pay their electricity bills.
Whatever they save will go into their pockets, he said, adding that the move aimed to encourage farmers to save groundwater by minimising its use.
If the groundwater crisis was not addressed on priority, Punjab would face turbulent times ahead, he warned, adding that the DBTE would be a win-win situation for both the government and the farmers.
Singh said under the scheme, therefore, if a farmer was consuming electricity worth Rs 50,000 in a year, he will be paid that amount directly.
"If he manages to save on his electricity bill through prudent consumption, the money he thus saves will go into his pocket," he said.
The idea is not to save electricity, which is surplus, but to save the precious groundwater resource, Singh said, adding that when farmers discover that the money they save is theirs they would be motivated to use electricity judiciously.
He also rejected the charge of forcible imposition of the scheme, saying no farmer was being forced into joining the pilot project which was being launched in a very limited area.
The benefits of the scheme were being explained to the farmers, who were voluntarily coming forward to participate in the project, he added.
The state cabinet had approved the pilot project at its last meeting.
Under it, the beneficiary farmers would be paid subsidy in cash, based on cost of power for irrigating the crops as finalised by Punjab Agriculture University, along with agriculture and water resources departments.
The scheme's implementation would help the state in promoting crop diversification, saving precious groundwater, accurate energy accounting resulting in rationalisation of subsidy, checking transmission and distribution (T&D) losses, he said.
If successful, the project would be followed by randomised evaluation to measure the benefits of DBTE for agriculture consumers in terms of conservation of power and ground water, he said, giving details of the cabinet decision.
The Punjab State Power Corporation Limited (PSPCL) has tied up with J-PAL South Asia and the World Bank to evaluate DBTE for agriculture consumers on six feeders with 990 AP connections, besides curbing wasteful energy consumption, according to a spokesperson of the Chief Minister's Office.
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