Power consumption up by 6,000 MW in Karnataka due to drought: Siddaramaiah

Blaming the previous BJP government for the current power crisis in Karnataka, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah said due to drought this year, consumption has gone up from 10,000 MW to 16,000 MW in October.

Responding to questions on load-shedding in the state, he said the farmers are using more electricity for their pump sets in the absence of adequate rains this year.

Despite being in power for five years, neither former Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy nor BJP added even one megawatt of electricity. It is our government which generated more power in the state, Siddaramaiah told reporters here.

Kumaraswamy ran a Congress-JD(S) coalition government for 14 months from 2018 to 2019 before it collapsed due to the disqualification of several MLAs after they crossed over to the BJP. Subsequently, the BJP came to power, and it lost to the Congress in the Assembly elections held in May this year.

Due to lack of (adequate) rains this year, farmers are using more electricity for their pump sets. Usually 10,000 MW power is consumed during October, but now it has gone up to 16,000 MW. There is an increase of power consumption by 6,000 MW, the Chief Minister explained.

Conceding that there was an electricity crisis in the state, he said recently he had a meeting with officials where he directed them that the farmers should be given three-phase power connection for five hours continuously.

Siddaramaiah said he has instructed the officers to purchase power from outside the State wherever there is availability and also obtain it from cogeneration in sugar factories of the state.

We are making every possible effort to ensure there is no load shedding for our farmers, he said.

Speaking about the drought situation in the state, the CM said out of 236 Taluks, 216 are drought affected, and the state was expecting relief assistance of Rs 4,860 crore from the Centre as per the norms of the National Disaster Response Fund.

He reiterated that the crop loss due to drought in the wake of inadequate rains is to the tune of Rs 30,000 crore.