Bagalakote: Free electricity is now news everywhere, but the villagers of a village here in Bagalakote District have not paid their electricity bill for past 22 years. Yes, a village in District is making a lot of noise now because of such a different move made 22 years ago.
Villagers of Shirola in Mudhol Taluk of the District have not paid their electricity bills since 2001. By the way, this is the same village known for the farmers’ struggle.
The farmers of Shirola Village argue that they will pay the electricity bill only after Government gives them a good support price for their produce. Stating thisthe farmers here have not paid electricity bills.
The villagers are not paying the electricity bill post a struggle led by farmer activists Nanjundaswamy and Ramesh Gadadan. At that time, there was no proper and quality power supply and only if 440 watts of electricity were supplied, the water motor would turn on. However, only 250 watts of electricity was supplied by Karnataka Electricity Board (KEB), and due to the volt difference, the farmers’ TCs were getting burnt. Angered by this, the farmers started protesting against the Government. They started a fight to get their TC right.
The then Government led by S. M. Krishna had announced free electricity for motor pumps up to 10 HP of farmers. Later, the farmers protested and added that even the electricity bill of the house would not be paid. We are farmers and still the Government does not announce a fair price for our crop, therefore, we Shirol farmers have decided not to pay the pumpset bill and not even the house bill. The Government provide 24-hour power supply to businessmen. How can a double line of electricity be given so that only farmers can get water at night?, argued farmers.
The struggle of not paying the electricity bill till the price of farmers’ crops is revised is continuing until now. Thus, farmers in Shirol have not paid their electricity bills since 2001.
Non-payment of electricity bills has been an unwritten rule in the entire village. The story of the struggle of the villagers of Shirol has once again come to the fore amidst today’s announcement of free electricity.