Bescom proposes power cuts for industries, only to retract

The City’s industries can heave a sigh of relief for now, with Bescom withdrawing its application seeking permission for loadshedding submitted to the Karnataka Electricity Regulatory Commission (KERC), for reasons known to it.

The Bescom, in the first week of October, had submitted the proposal for loadshedding for the industrial sector for about six hours  a day— three hours in the morning and three in the evening.

M R Sreenivasamurthy, chairman of KERC, told Deccan Herald that Bescom had withdrawn its application. “They had filed an application seeking permission to impose load restriction on industries. They have withdrawn the application now,” he said. 

He said there was no reason for the withdrawal as Bescom just filed an application and withdrew it.

No reasons sought

“If anybody wants to withdraw the application, we don’t seek the reasons, we just permit,” he said.

The Bescom had proposed to impose load restriction on industries to meet the power requirement of farmers – who require three-phase power for borewells supplying water to the crops, as the monsoon has tapered off.

It had stated that the power saved through the loadshedding would be diverted to rural consumers, both domestic and agriculture within its operational area - Bangalore Urban, Bangalore Rural, Ramanagara, Kolar, Chikkaballapur, Tumkur, Davangere and Chitradurga districts.

“If power is not provided to irrigation pumpsets at this critical juncture, standing crops worth crores of rupees will be lost, affecting not just the farmers, but the economy as a whole,” Bescom had stated in the application.

Bescom had even held a consultative meeting with industries, farmers, joint directors of agriculture of all the districts, joint directors of industries and commerce, representatives of Karnataka Small Scale Industries Association and Federation of Karnataka Chambers of Commerce and Industries on September 26 and 27 in this regard. Bescom had foreseen a shortage of 600 MW of power in the next two weeks.

When contacted, Bescom managing director P Manivannan said the power situation was under control now.