Under the banner of Kisan Ekta Sangh, farmers held a maha panchayat and staged a dharna at the Noida Power Company Limited (NPCL) office on Thursday, demanding power connection in the floodplain areas and the withdrawal of cases of power theft filed against them.
The farmers claimed that NPCL “commits irregularities and sends inflated bills to the villagers.” The farmers said that if someone files a complaint, they will be accused of power theft.
“Farmers, numbering thousands, surrounded the head office of the NPCL electricity company in the Tugalpur area of Greater Noida in Gautam Budh district, demanding connection in floodplain areas,” Rajendra Chauhan, from Kisan Ekta Sangh, said amid a huge police force deployed on the spot.
Farmers claimed they are “overcharged and bills are not corrected” even though they are paying their bills on time.They said that unapproved funds are also taken from them in order to establish new connections.
“No power connections are being given by NPCL in the submerged area. Arbitrary money is also being collected,” Chauhan said. Regional farmers said that their rights were being restricted and that they would continue to sit in protest until their demands were fulfilled. However, the demands were considered “unreasonable” by the NPCL. It stated that the department “would address genuine cases post-investigation” in regard to inflated bills and FIRs.
“Two rounds of talks were held today between the protesting farmers and the NPCL. There were two key demands. They were insisting that electricity connections be provided in the doob area (the floodplain areas). To this, senior officials from the district administration as well as from the NPCL explained in detail about the ban imposed on all activity in the floodplain areas by the NGT. Hence, nothing can be done in this regard without explicit government orders,” NCPL vice president (operations) Sarnath Ganguly said.
Secondly, the farmers were asking for the withdrawal of all electricity theft cases. However according to the NPCL, there have been “no false cases” of farmers being the victims of electricity theft. However, if any farmer feels otherwise, they are encouraged to submit a list of names to NPCL. It will then form a committee to examine these cases and decide them according to their merits.
“The demands made by the farmers are inappropriate. To convince the protesting farmers, the NPCL is ready to hold another discussion with them tomorrow,” Ganguly said.
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