With the positive response given by the farmers to its ‘Paani Bachao, Paise Kamao’ an ambitious scheme of the direct benefit transfer for electricity to agricultural consumers to save the groundwater, Punjab State Power Corporation Limited (PSPCL) has announced expansion of the scheme from six feeders to 250 new feeders of the state.To cover maximum agricultural consumers, PSPCL along with Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare Department will also start an awareness drive in the villages of the state and holding capacity training workshops for officials of both departments who will motivate the consumers to adopt the scheme.This was revealed by PSPCL distribution director Mr NK Sharma in Shakti Sadan building of the department.Mr Sharma said that the scheme was started on a pilot basis in the six feeders including Bambiawal feeder in Jalandhar along with other five feeders in Fatehgarh Sahib and Hoshiarpur districts during June 2018. He said that from June 2018 and till to date, an amount of Rs 15.74 Lakh as subsidy has been transferred to the accounts of consumers for judicious use of water by the department. Mr. Sharma added as per the scheme if the power supply limit of a farmer is fixed 1,200 units per month, and the farmer consumes 1000 units, in that case, Rs 800 (Rs 4 per unit on saved 200 units) is being directly credited into his bank account. PSPCL distribution director added that farmers, who have not adopted the scheme, will continue to get electricity free of cost and meters are installed at tubewells of those farmers who have adopted this scheme to keep a record of the subsidy.
Distribution Director also revealed that World Bank and J-PAL are supporting in the implementation of the scheme on these new feeders along with The Energy and Resource Institute (TERI), IT Power India (ITPI), Punjab Agriculture University (PAU), Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab (J-PAL), a research organization based out of MIT USA, are also instrumental in conceptualising the scheme design.Moreover, Mr Sharma stated that the sole aim of the scheme is to ensure that farmers use the power with restraint and pump out water judiciously. He said that every detail regarding the usage of power and the money transferred into the account of the farmer is being given to him on the phone.He stated PSPCL will initiate mass awareness drive to sensitize the farmers regarding the scheme and using the groundwater judiciously. He said that the schedule for the camps has also been prepared and a joint team of officials of PSPCL and Agriculture departments will motivate the agriculture consumers to adopt the scheme.Mr. Sharma told if people continue to pump out the water carelessly, Punjab would become desert in the coming years and future generations will curse our generation. On the occasion, Chief Engineer North Zone Mr Sanjiv Kumar, Chief Engineer Commercial Mr Pradeep Gupta, Deputy Chief Engineer Mr Harjinder Singh Bansal, Chief Agriculture Officer Mr Nazar Singh, Mr Arvind Jhamb and Mr Gaurav from World Bank, Ms Soumaya Kochhar from J-PAL, Ms Navsudeep Sandhu from TERI and others were present.