The Gujarat government on Sunday announced that it will give a second agriculture power connection to farmers from the tribal belt with a survey number land of four-acre or more. The state in a release said that the decision was taken to benefit small farmers, particularly in tribal areas of the state where landholdings are not big enough to get a second power connection for agriculture.
"The farmer with the requisite land size needs to approach concerned authorities with the necessary documents to get a second power connection for agriculture," the government said in a release. It said the decision will benefit lakhs of farmers in the Central and South Gujarat region.
"Since the land-holding in tribal districts of the state is small, marginal farmers often can't get the benefit of a second three-phase power connection for agriculture under the existing scheme," said the state.
According to the existing rules, a farmer can get a second agriculture power connection for the same survey number of his land, provided it measures eight acres or more. The state had before the 2017 assembly elections, announced that it would allow farmers a second agriculture power connection for land that measured eight-acre or more, thus agreeing to a long-pending demand of the farming community
Earlier the government had informed the house that in the year 2016 and 2017, a total of 1.61 lakh applications from across the state were made for electricity for agricultural use. Of those, 81% of the applications remained pending for some or the other reason. In a reply, the state had at that time said that the applications were pending due to several reasons, including disputes over the ownership of land, lack of relevant documents, etc.
