Noida: For the past couple of months, farmers in Greater Noida have been getting inflated electricity bills ranging from Rs 10,000 to Rs 20,000 from the usual Rs 2,000-Rs 3,000 a month. The farmers also said the discom was not providing a subsidy of 500 units on a 5-kilowatt connection. There are nearly 5,000 farmers and almost 2,000 of them claimed that they have such connections.A delegation of farmers under the Bhartiya Kisan Union (Krishak) banner met Noida Power Company Limited officials over their concerns and set a one-month deadline for their resolution. They have warned the officials that they would take to the streets against NPCL after Nov 7 if the issues were not addressed.The national president of the union, Krishna Nagar, said, “We have been asked to pay these ‘arbitrary’ prices for the past couple of months. This is not the first time that we were served such high bills. Every time we complain, we are told that these bills are due to overloading. This is completely false.” Moreover, the discom has failed to increase the load capacity despite multiple requests, he added.
Farmers also complained lack of subsidy on tubewell connections.
Another core issue raised during the meeting was the absence of subsidies on tubewell connections. Farmers claimed that frequent power outages have added to their challenges.Discussions were held with NPCL officials, including vice president Praveen Goyal, Subodh Tyagi, general manager Harendra Singh, Rajesh Srivastava, Sushil Sunar and Neeraj Singh. BKU district president Vikram Bhati said farmers have given a one-month deadline to the discom to resolve the issues. “If the issues are not resolved within this period, a major agitation will be launched against NPCL after Nov 7,” said Bhati.In response to these allegations, an NPCL spokesperson told TOI that discussions were held with the farmers and that the allegation of ‘arbitrary’ electricity billing is completely false. “Every consumer with a tubewell connection is billed according to the electricity consumed. Moreover, all eligible farmers with tubewell connections are receiving the applicable subsidy. There are a total of 1,132 farmers with tubewell connections in our licensed area. Out of these, 651 eligible farmers are receiving the subsidy, while the remaining 481 farmers are not eligible for it,” the NPCL spokesperson said.
