Tamil Nadu Finance Minister Palanivel Thiagarajan who released a ‘white paper’ on the states’ finance had said that the financial condition of transport and electricity sectors are in shambles. He had said that it cannot be business as usual in these sectors and reforms have to be done. For rationalizing subsidies, Palanivel Thiagarajan had said that it was important to bring all consumers including farmers under the purview of the state through metering so that the government knows whether the subsidy is going to those who actually need it.
It is to be noted that the Central Government had been nudging states like Tamil Nadu to rationalize power subsidies given to farmers and undertake serious reforms to improve the finances of the electricity generation and distribution companies (TANGEDCO for Tamil Nadu). The government had said that metering of all connections it needed to curb power theft. However, back then, the DMK which was in opposition had strongly opposed bringing farmers under metering. It had peddled lies that metering would lead to farmers paying electricity bills who have been enjoying free power.
But not that the DMK is in power, its Finance Minister is strongly batting for bringing farmers under metering. In an interview to a Tamil news channel, he said that those who are benefitting out of the present broken system are the ones who are peddling lies that metering would lead to farmers getting charged. He said that only when the connection is metered, farmers would get free electricity and added that only when the connection is metered the government would know where the power is going and whether the free power is being used by the right beneficiaries.
When the anchor points out that metering was strongly opposed by the DMK before, Palanivel Thiagarajan said that this is his stance today which need not be necessarily his party’s stance. He added that ‘information is poor man’s friend and not enemy’.
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