Palakkad, Sunday 07 February 2010: Electricity Minister A.K. Balan has said that 100 Assembly constituencies in the State will become totally electrified by the end of the year. Talking to mediapersons here, Balan said 25 Assembly constituencies were already totally electrified.

On February 16, Palakkad district will be declared totally electrified by Union Minister for Power Sushil Kumar Shinde at a function at Ottapalam. This will be followed by Thrissur and Kozhikode districts.
Balan said a sum of Rs.23.26 crore was spent for total electrification of Palakkad district.

After the Left Democratic Front government came to power, Rs.520 crore was spent in the district for the development of the power sector. A total of 1.8 lakh new power connections were given, 969 km of 11-kV power lines drawn and 1,112 transformers installed in the past three years.

Balan said land acquisition for a 400-kV substation was complete and the work would begin soon. The substation would provide quality power to industries in the Kanjikode area.

He said Rs.100 crore would be spent by the Kerala State Electricity Board to distribute 1.5 crore CFL bulbs at subsidised rates to 75,000 families to reduce the consumption of power.

Replying a question on the move to increase power tariff, Balan said the increase in the power surcharge “will not affect the people as it will be a very small amount for the people who spend Rs.42 crore each day to buy Indian Made Foreign Liquor. In fact people are asking us why there was no power tariff increase for the past couple of years.”