The Chief Minister's Office of Rajasthan announced on Saturday, 18 July 2026 that farmers across 26 districts of the state are now receiving electricity during daytime hours, with a commitment to extend the facility statewide in the near future. The post, attributed to Chief Minister Bhajan Lal Sharma, stated in Hindi: '26 jilon mein, kisanon ko din mein bijli mil rahi hai' ('In 26 districts, farmers are receiving electricity during the day'), adding that the supply would soon be made available to farmers across the entire state.

Context

For decades, agricultural electricity supply in Rajasthan — as in most Indian states — was routed through the same feeders as domestic and commercial consumers, resulting in erratic, largely nocturnal supply to farms. Farmers were forced to run irrigation pumps at night, raising safety risks and reducing cropping efficiency. The shift to dedicated daytime agricultural supply addresses a long-standing grievance of the farming community. The hashtag #आपणो_अग्रणी_राजस्थान ('Our Pioneering Rajasthan') used in the post reflects the BJP state government's branding of its development agenda since taking office in December 2023.

Policy Backdrop

The effort to separate agricultural feeders and deliver daytime power to farmers has a well-established lineage in Indian infrastructure policy. Gujarat's Jyotigram Yojana, launched in the early 2000s, became the national template: by physically separating rural domestic and agricultural feeders, the state was able to guarantee round-the-clock power to villages and scheduled daytime supply to farms. Maharashtra, Telangana and Madhya Pradesh subsequently scaled similar feeder-separation programmes. Rajasthan's approach follows this model. Feeder separation, combined with the integration of solar capacity, aligns irrigation pumping with daylight hours — reducing distribution losses for state electricity distribution companies (discoms), curbing subsidy burdens and supporting higher cropping intensity by giving farmers predictable windows for irrigation.

Stakeholders and Impact

Rajasthan is one of India's largest states by area, with agriculture forming a critical pillar of its economy. A large share of the state's farmers depend on groundwater irrigation through electric pump sets. Reliable daytime power directly translates into lower diesel generator costs, reduced drudgery, and the ability to monitor irrigation — benefits that compound across the kharif and rabi cropping seasons. For the state's discoms, feeder separation reduces aggregate technical and commercial losses by channelling agricultural load into defined windows, making demand more predictable. Solar-linked feeder programmes additionally allow the state to offset the cost of subsidised farm power with renewable generation.

What's Next

The Chief Minister's Office has signalled that the remaining districts will be brought under the daytime supply scheme, though no specific deadline was mentioned in the post. Observers will watch for state budget allocations, solar-feeder tenders and grid-upgrade contracts that would operationalise the statewide rollout. The pace of expansion will also be a marker of the Bhajan Lal Sharma government's infrastructure delivery record ahead of future electoral cycles.