Power plays truant

Source The Hindu
Many could not watch the live telecast of budget presentation
Many farmers could not watch the live telecast of the budget presentation made by Chief Minister B.S. Yeddyurappa on Thursday, owing to scheduled and unscheduled loadshedding in urban and rural areas.
There was no power supply for a major part of the day in several villages in Belgaum taluk and city, including border villages of Hindalga and Sulga and such as Sahyadri Nagar, Hanuman Nagar and T.V. Centre. Power went off frequently and people could not watch the Budget presentation live on television.
Those who were waiting to watch BJP’s first budget were disappointed.
A farmer in Hindalga, Yeshwant Monappa Savgaonkar said he had read in newspapers that Mr. Yeddyurappa would be announcing some relief for farmers and hence he was curious to see the Budget presentation on television. But, there was no power supply.
On the promise to provide free power supply, he said that the Government should first ensure regular and quality power supply every day. “We have learnt to live without regular power supply for years and do not know for how many years this will go on.”
A majority of small and marginal farmers did not have Irrigation Pump sets and depended on rainfall for crops. Was there anything in the Budget for such farmers, he asked. Anandrama Gadakari of Sulga, who is a marginal farmer, said that the Governments had been making so many promises for alleviating poverty. But the fate of his family had not changed in the past six decades. He was unaware of the proposal on complete eradication of poverty. A resident of TV Centre said that the Hubli Electricity Supply Company should have ensured that there was no power cut on the day of budget presentation.
Without power supply, there was no meaning in television channels providing live coverage of the proceedings, he added.