Tue Mar 04 17:58:38 UTC 2025: ## Tirupattur Farmers Protest Power Outage
**TIRUPATTUR, March 4, 2025** – Farmers in Melur village, near Jolarpet in Tirupattur district, staged a sit-in protest on Tuesday demanding the repair of a defunct electricity transformer. The outage, caused by high power consumption during the recent heatwave, has left farmers unable to operate their motor pump sets for irrigation.
The 100 KV transformer, in service for over three decades, failed in February due to increased demand from the village’s expanding agricultural lands (now approximately 800 acres). Farmers, many of whom rely on free electricity subsidies, say the lack of power is impacting their crops and increasing their expenses due to reliance on diesel pumps.
While Tangedco, the local electricity board, has provided an alternative household power supply, the voltage is insufficient to run the motor pumps. The existing Tangedco office serves around 8,000 consumers across seven hamlets and monitors roughly 200 transformers. The aging transformer in Melur was deemed unable to handle the increased load.
However, a solution is on the horizon. Tangedco has secured government approval for a new 63 KV transformer at a cost of Rs. four lakhs. Installation is expected to begin next week, enabling farmers to resume irrigation efforts. Assistant Engineer S. Bhoopathy of Tangedco confirmed the development and assured farmers of the swift resolution.
First Piper 