The Hindu Business Line : Karnataka panchayats take over local power distribution

KARNATAKA, which has taken the lead in power sector reforms, has successfully added a dimension to it by embarking on an empowerment programme of the gram panchayat to reform the rural electricity distribution system.

Through a pilot project aimed at involving the gram panchayats in managing electricity distribution and bill collections, the Government has decided to replicate the United States Agency for International Development (USAID)-sponsored Participatory Rural Energy Services in Karnataka (PRESK) throughout the State.

As a first step, the Government has decided to transfer PRESK to a new cell to be created within the Mahatma Gandhi Institute of Rural Energy and Development.

PRESK focused on inter-related problems of poor power quality and supply, rural sector subsidies, water resources, and farming practices. Four taluks comprising 112 gram panchayats were selected for the pilot project.

The PRESK mission worked with the State Government and the Bangalore Electricity Supply Company (BESCOM) to enhance communications with the panchayats, train panchayat members in electricity supply support services, and transfer best practices for water, farming and electricity management to them."The panchayat members feel empowered and have voluntarily come forward to discuss issues with the distribution company. As a group, these panchayats have also sent resolutions and expressions of interest addressed to BESCOM indicating their interests in signing a memorandum of understanding to take over electricity supply services in their respective communities," said an official release.

In November 2002, USAID and the State Government had initiated the pilot project with the PRESK team holding public meetings and workshops for panchayat representatives and farmers to listen to problems and offer solutions.

Representatives from the Bangladesh Rural Electricity Board, which had successfully implemented the programme and Karnataka's Hukkeri Electric Cooperative Society visited the gram panchayats to demonstrate how rural electricity supply was handled.

Local surveys of water usage and crop revenues were conducted, and a capacity building effort was also initiated to train panchayat representatives on how to manage electricity billing and collections locally.

PRESK commissioned "Back to the Soil", a Kannada-language film by the noted producer-director Suresh Heblikar, to drive home the problems faced by the farmers in Karnataka due to poor distribution system and help motivate the gram panchayats to become involved in self-management of resources.

A model resource centre was established in Gubbi taluk to provide farmers with information on water resource management, improved farming techniques, and electricity conservation.

Farmers from other areas were now requesting that several mobile resource centres be created to help spread the PRESK message and disseminate much-needed information to more farming communities in the State.