Belagavi farmers asked to pay for wires amid a shortage

The shortage came to light after Belagavi Taluk Raita Sangh and Hasiru Sene complained about a non-functioning wire

The Hubballi Electricity Supply Company (HESCOM) in Belagavi district has unofficially declared an “out of stock” situation, as more than a hundred sub-divisions across the district are being directed to purchase equipments from external sources and get the bills reimbursed in a few days, administration officials familiar with the matter said. Not only transformers, but also poles, pole-connecting wires, spare parts, and even the new electronic power consumption metres are unavailable in about 90% of the sub-divisions in the district.

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The shortage came to light after Belagavi Taluk Raita Sangh and Hasiru Sene complained about a non-functioning wire connected from the pole to the transformer in Kadoli village and the farmers were asked by the sub-division officials to purchase the equipment on their own.

Raita Sangh president, Appasaheb Desai told HT that the rural sub-division office in Nehru Nagar, Belagavi, had provided a list of materials and equipment required to restart the transformer in Kadoli village, which had not been functioning since last week. The list of equipment provided by the sub-division for farmers to purchase from the market amounts to around ₹7,000.

“The department has also assured reimbursement within a week. As the electric power supply is essential to lift water from wells and borewells to irrigate the crops, we decided to collect funds from the farmers to purchase the necessary items to prevent the crops from drying up,” he said.

MH Raghavendra, the assistant executive engineer of Belagavi rural sub-division, overseeing five divisions in the area, informed HT that the authorised agency has not supplied the equipment, leaving the sub-divisions grappling with shortages and depleted stock. This has forced HESCOM to ask people to purchase the required equipment from the market and hand it over to the department, which will fix and repair faults related to pole and pole wire connections.

“We have informed those who come with complaints related to public work that they will be reimbursed for the expenses they incur in purchasing the required items from the market. If not, we have instructed our contractors to buy the necessary items and attend to the complaints,” Raghavendra said.

Raghavendra said that he would contact the four other sub-divisions in Belagavi rural area to use available wire there if it is in stock. He assured the Raita Sangh of connecting a new wire in 2-3 days, to which the organization also agreed. Raghavendra added that the wire connected to the transformer had burnt due to a high-power supply.

The district, which comprises 15 taluks, except Belagavi and Khanapur taluks, received very little rainfall, leading the government to declare it as drought-hit. The crops sown two months ago now require water; otherwise, they will wither. Farmers are facing difficulties in providing water to their crops from borewells and open wells, not only due to the unavailability of equipment and spare parts to repair the damaged pump sets and transformers but also because of unplanned load shedding, as mentioned by Bailhongal MLA Koujalagi.

According to the norms of power supplying agencies, HESCOM must replace or repair damaged transformers within 72 hours of receiving a complaint. However, dozens of damaged transformers in Chikkodi division, covering four taluks, have neither been replaced nor repaired for more than a month. Sub-division engineers in the Chikkodi region cited the same reasons as their counterparts in the Belagavi sub-division regarding the unavailability of equipment and spare parts.

HESCOM Belagavi and Chikkodi division Executive Engineers Sunilkumar and Sumangala Bendagar, respectively, were unavailable for comment.