Upset over irregular power supply for their irrigation pumpsets, farmers of Narendra village in Dharwad taluk laid a siege to the HESCOM power transmission station near University of Agricultural Sciences in Dharwad on Tuesday.
The farmers, who came to the transmission station on their bullock carts, laid the siege to the station saying that despite several complaints, no remedial step has been taken by the officials.
They said that at a time when farmers have been forced to depend on irrigation pumpsets in the wake of deficit rainfall, the authorities have failed to ensure regular power supply to run the irrigation pumpsets.
The farmers said that earlier they used to get three-phase power supply for at least seven hours in a day, which, however, has now been brought down to just three hours.
Consequently, the farmers are not able to irrigate even half of their farmland within such time, they said and demanded that three-phase power supply be provided for at least seven hours in a day.
As the farmers had announced their plan to lay a siege to the power station earlier, the police had made elaborate bandobast arrangements.
Consequent to the protest, vehicular movement on the Dharwad-Belagavi Road stretch was affected for some time. After much effort, the police managed to convince the farmers to clear the roadblock and allow vehicles to pass through.
The farmers warned that if the same situation continues, they will be forced to resort to road blockade and lay a siege again to the station for longer hours than now.
