Harish Urges TGERC To Reject Govt’s Rythu Discom Proposal

Hyderabad: Former minister and senior BRS leader T. Harish Rao on Wednesday demanded that the Telangana Electricity Regulatory Commission (TGERC) reject the government’s application for creating a third power distribution company (discom) to serve farmers.

In a letter to TGERC, Harish Rao, listing out the reasons why the application for a licence to start the ‘Rythu discom’ should be rejected, said to start with there was no demand for such an entity from farmers, or any other section of the society.

He said the commission should be aware that the government was putting pressure on it announcing that the new discom will begin operations on June 2, even before the public hearing process is completed. There was also no cabinet sub-committee recommendation for the third discom.

Urging the commission to hold widespread public hearings in all districts, Harish Rao expressed serious concerns over manpower shortages in the proposed discom. He said the government claims that nearly 29 lakh agricultural consumers in 32 districts and 584 mandals would be managed with only 2,000 employees, including barely 1,000 field staff such as linemen and artisans. “How can such limited staff maintain 5.5 lakh transformers and 2.6 lakh kilometres of LT lines?” Harish Rao asked.

Harish Rao said that the GO No. 44 that declared the intention to set up the new distribution company, admitted that the existing two discoms were under financial stress due to the gap between billing rates and cost of service. This makes it clear that the third discom is financially driven and not meant for farmers’ welfare.