Karnataka government has set March 31 as the deadline for farmers to regularise their unauthorised pump sets and warned of "merciless action" in cases of violations.
"...Number of unauthorised pump sets is increasing, so we have kept March 31 as the deadline. If farmers don't apply for regularisation by paying Rs 10,000 or 14,000 before March 31 we will take action mercilessly against the unauthorised pump sets," Karnataka Power Minister D K told reporters here.
He said "because of these unauthorised pump sets we are not able to provide justice to all" and added that farmers have to apply for regularisation to maintain accountability.
Government is also mulling steps to control power leakages that includes use of LED bulbs, Shivakumar said.
To a question on the power situation in the state, Shivakumar said there is 10 per cent demand supply gap, but government was confident of managing it.
He said "with all our efforts including our steps on renewable energy, our agreements with various organisations and governments, I think by next year we will be self sufficient."
To a question whether the government will intervene and roll back tariff increase, he said government has no role to play in this as increase or decrease in tariff are decided by the power companies depending on the situation.
Recently, the Karnataka Electricity Regulatory Commission had approved revision of electricity supply tariff for all the Electricity Supply Companies in the state for the financial year 2015-16, by allowing an average tariff increase of 13 paise per unit for different categories of consumers.
