Rs 16K crore burden on escoms: CM

Bengaluru, dhns: Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy on Tuesday said there is a huge financial burden on the Energy Department because it is providing free power supply and incentives to farmers.

He said that Bescom, Hescom and Gescom have a financial burden of Rs 16,000 crore towards loans and and pending bills.

He was speaking at the Customer Vigilance Awareness Meet 2019, where the Roof Top Evaluation for Solar Tool (Rest) and the logo of Electric Vehicle Recharge Stations were launched.

Kumaraswamy said the pump sets provided to farmers have helped them and the government has spent Rs 3,000 crore for this purpose. A subsidy of Rs 11,000 crore will also be given to farmers for electricity supply. Acknowledging that the Bescom employees are working to revive the company from losses and chalking policies and plans to break even, he also directed the public power utility to fix the loopholes in the organisation

He also said, “The Bescom can now heave a sigh of relief after launching new schemes in promoting and supplying solar energy.

It has started the exercise of supplying electricity through underground cables in most parts of Bengaluru and in the rest of the city, it will be done in phases. This will help in safety to people and leakages will be less.”

KERC Ombudsman N S Pattanashetty said many people are not aware of the customer grievance redressal cell in Besom. People should make use of this in large numbers, he advised.

Srinivas Avalali of Citizens for Bengaluru requested the Bescom not to provide supply to unauthorised buildings.

He also asked the people to honour the employees of Bescom as they are working towards the safety of consumers as it is a dangerous job.