State breathes easy as rains cut power consumption

Demand drops by almost 18 million units to 125 mu

“We are in a comfortable position now. Hopefully, it will rain for some more days and the demand level will be under control,” Karnataka Power Corporation Limited (KPCL) Managing Director S M Jaamdar told Deccan Herald. However, load shedding will continue, but it will not be as frequent as it used to be a few days ago, officials said.

With the power situation deteriorating ahead of the elections, the Yeddyurappa Government was keeping its fingers crossed. Both the Opposition parties, the Congress and the JD(S), had decided to corner the Government on the power issue during the elections. If the rains continue for a few more days, as per the forecast of the Meteorological department, the power situation will further improve.

Karnataka State Natural Disaster Management Centre Director V S Prakash said 10 districts in the south interior Karnataka received heavy rains in the last three days. They are: Bangalore, Bangalore Rural, Chikkaballapur, Kolar, Tumkur, Ramanagar, Mandya, Mysore, Hassan and Chikmagalur. Except for seven north Karnataka districts, the entire State received rainfall.

Officials added that there was a heavy demand for water supply for irrigating horticulture crops in the south interior Karnataka. “But thanks to the rains, farmers are not using irrigation pumpsets,” they said.

Agriculture Minister S R Ravindranath said on Thursday that the State government has taken steps to ensure there is adequate supply of fertilisers and seeds this year. Chatting with reporters, the Minister said the government has 3.34 lakh tonne fertiliser stock in various districts. The fertiliser requirement for April in the State is around 2.26 lakh tonne. The Centre had released 2.90 lakh tonne resulting in a surplus.