BJP will lock power firms if Karnataka govt fails to give 7 hours of supply to farmers: Bommai

Chikkaballapura: The BJP will lock the Electricity Supply Companies (ESCOM) offices and hold an agitation if the state government fails to ensure an uninterrupted seven hours of power supply in three phases to farmers, former Karnataka Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai warned on Wednesday.

Addressing a farmers' protest organised by the BJP against the "anti-farmer attitude" of the government, he said the duty of the government was to ensure the power supply and it was not doing any favour.

"The officials would tell how the Department of Energy had been functioning. The previous BJP government had given Rs 10,000 crore to the Energy Department. However, the present Congress government has not released any grant as it did not have money to release the grant and purchase coal," Bommai said.

Alleging farmers were given hardly two hours of power daily but the power tariff had been hiked twice in the last three months, he warned the government that "the BJP would lock the ESCOM offices and launch protests if farmers are not supplied seven hours of power in three phases. Against how many people you (govt) can book cases and send to jail? We will go to jail in such a large number that you will be forced to release us." There are 1.50 lakh IP (irrigation pump) sets and all the crops are drying in Chikkaballapura district for want of power, he added.

Bommai earlier in the day said the incumbent Congress government is a 'zero-grant' administration as it has not released the grants to anyone (legislators), and claimed that the previous BJP regime did not differentiate while releasing the grants.

He said the previous BJP government had released the grants to the MLAs of the then opposition parties, and treated everyone equally.

"...this is a zero-grant government as the money is not released for any development works," Bommai said, calling it anti-farmer, as the IP sets of scores of farmers have stopped functioning for want of power.