CHENNAI: PMK president Anbumani Ramadoss has welcomed the State government's decision to provide 50,000 free agricultural electricity connections for the current financial year, but urged it to expedite the remaining four lakh connections pending for farmers across Tamil Nadu.

In a statement, Anbumani said the government's decision to end the long wait of farmers and allocate a subsidy of Rs 127.56 crore for the connections was welcome. However, he stressed that the annual allocation must be increased to one lakh connections to clear the backlog within four years.

Anbumani said 47,554 farmers had applied under the Tatkal Scheme following the DMK government's 2025 announcement, paying between Rs 2.5 lakh and Rs 4 lakh for connections. He also pointed out that 12,566 farmers had applied under the scheme in 2023, but the government had failed to provide connections despite collecting more than Rs 1,250 crore from them.

In August, he had urged the government to provide connections to all 4.6 lakh waiting farmers, including 60,000 Tatkal applicants and four lakh applicants under the regular scheme. PMK Legislature Party leader Sowmya Anbumani subsequently raised the demand in the Assembly, following which the Electricity Minister gave an assurance, he said.

Welcoming the partial fulfilment of the PMK's demand, Anbumani said many farmers had been waiting for more than 13 years. He urged the government to increase the annual allocation to one lakh connections and ensure that all eligible applicants received free agricultural electricity within four years.