These villagers have not paid power bills for 32 years

Come November, will be 32 years since the police firing incident that took place on the streets of Gejjalagere village in Maddur taluk, Mandya district, in which two villagers were killed  during the confrontation between the agitating sugarcane farmers and the police.

The incident which occurred during the then Gundu Rao government has had such serious repercussions that even today, the State’s ex-chequer, especially the Energy department, is bearing the brunt of it.

During the police firing, Siddappa of Gejjalagere, who was at that time around 58 years old and Nathappa from Valagerehalli, who was 24 years old, had lost their lives. The incident has not just scarred the family members of the two victims, but it had deeply impacted people of 33 surrounding villages. The villagers had erected memorials for the duo at their respective villages as a tribute to mark their sacrifices. They had also taken a strong stand to gherao the government, following which it was collectively decided not to pay water, land, and electricity bills for an indefinite period.

Over the years however, farmer organisations started exploiting the situation, a reality which both the farmers and authorities today openly voice. Everytime local authorities tried to organise conciliatory meets with the farmers, the farmer organisations have played spoil sport.

Though the government started recovering the pending land arrears and water bills from the year 2004, when industrial estate of Karnataka Industrial Areas Development Board became a reality in the taluk, Chamundeshwari Electricity Supply Company (Cesc) however has failed to convince the farmers to pay their pending bills. The arrears has now grown up to a whopping Rs 5.96 crore. Some of the offenders have to pay Cesc in lakhs. Of the 5,000-odd households in the 32 villages, over 2,250 households still continue to be defaulters.

Despite Cesc continuously requesting the villagers to pay their pending bills, farmer organisations have interevened and demanded that Cesc waive of the 12 per cent annual interest and the penalty amount. They have also demanded that the farmers be allowed to pay the arrears in installments. Since Cesc is not in the position to waive off the interest and the penalty, as it is a policy decision, there has been a stalemate over the issue in the last three decades.

Interestingly, some of the villagers have begun to feel the heat. “It is very wrong not to be paying the electricity bill. Although many villagers want to pay up, the Raitha Sangha leaders stop us from doing so. The firing incident happened many years ago, and many of villagers are exploiting the incident,” says Appaji, 85, of Gejjalgere.

It is also interesting to note that Nathappa’s family has been paying the electricity bill ever since his death. Nagaraj, Nathappa’s brother told Deccan Herald that except during the instances when Cesc has failed to send the bill collector, he has always paid his bills. “It is an irony that Cesc itself is not interested in collecting the bills,” says Nagaraj, 60. This sentiment is echoed by many other villagers too.

Bill collection drive

Cesc will conduct an arrears recovery drive on July 30 and 31 in four “sensitive” villages, namely, Gejjalagere, Valagerehalli, Pannedoddi, and Konasale. To ensure that nothing goes wrong during the drive, Cesc officials from Maddur division have written to the Maddur and Besagarahalli police, seeking police protection.

Manjunath G U, AEE, Cesc, Maddur Division, said that this time around, the company is determined to ensure that the villagers paid their dues. “Everytime we try to enter the villages, they threaten us, and chase us away. But this time we are going in with complete police protection,” he added.