Gadag
“Our government is giving top priority to Kusum-B and Kusum-C schemes to provide continuous seven hours of electricity to farmers’ agricultural pump sets during the day,” said Energy Minister KJ George. He spoke while presiding over a progress review meeting with the district’s public representatives and officials regarding the Energy Department at the Gadag Zilla Panchayat Hall on Wednesday.
Pump sets located 500 m outside the power grid will be provided with solar power under the Kusum-B scheme. The subsidy provided by our government for this scheme has been increased from 30 percent to 50 percent. Similarly, solarisation of agricultural feeders is being done under the Kusum-C scheme, which will enable farmers to supply electricity to their agricultural pump sets for 7 hours during the day, he said.
“When our government came to power in 2023, there were 4.5 lakh illegal agricultural pump sets in the state. After our Congress government led by Chief Minister Siddaramaiah came to power, 2.5 lakh illegal agricultural pump sets were regularised and basic solar power was provided. The work of regularizing the remaining pump sets will be completed in another year,” he said.
District in-charge Minister Dr HK Patil said that there is a lot of scope for wind and solar power generation in Gadag district. “The farmers here should benefit from this. Farmers who provide land for these projects should be given 10 percent partnership in the project. Earlier, some concessions were given to the Uttara Kannada district, which generates electricity. Similarly, district should also get a concession,” he said.
HESCOM President Syed Azim Peer S Qadri, KPTCL Managing Director Pankaj Kumar Pandey, HESCOM Managing Director ML Vaishali, Deputy Commissioner CN Sridhar and other officials participated.
