Mangaluru : Banks in Dakshina Kannada will have to sanction loans to 5,000 domestic solar power installations by the end of this financial year.

Stating this at a meeting here on Saturday, the Lead District Manager (Syndicate Bank) Raghava Y. said that the government has considered sanctioning loans to renewable energy sector as priority sector advance. Banks can not shirk away from their responsibility.

Mr. Raghava said that each branch could sanction loan to 12 proposals in the remaining four months. Every branch could advance to at least three proposals per month.

Deputy Commissioner A.B. Ibrahim had convened the meeting of non-government organisations, bankers, industrialists and power consumers to promote tapping solar energy in the district by making more people to install solar energy generation units. Mr. Ibrahim said that Nalin Kumar Kateel, MP, has promised to sanction Rs. 20 lakh from his area development fund and Ivan D’Souza, MLC, had promised Rs. 5 lakh for installing solar power generation unit in the office of the Deputy Commissioner.

Chikkananjappa, Managing Director, MESCOM, said that the company would ensure that a single window facility would be arranged in each sub-division in Dakshina Kannada for clearing the solar installation proposals. Earlier some participants pressed for the facility.

He said that now the daily requirement of power of MESCOM was about 650 MW. It would go up to 800 MW a day from January. As there was less rains this year electricity demand would only go up. MESCOM has already resorted to load shedding. Tapping renewable sources of power was the need of the hour.

Kateel Dinesh Pai, an activist, said that in the move to promote tapping solar energy greenery and trees should not be cut in the district, especially in urban areas. He said that there was every chance of people who installed the solar panels cutting trees to avoid shadows and ensure that sun rays directly fell on the panels. While approving solar projects a condition should be imposed that no greenery was destroyed.

Mr. D’Souza, MLC said that the roof top solar energy unit installed in his house at Valencia recently was a success. People in Mangaluru should take the lead in tapping solar energy. He said that solar energy could be tapped for about 300 days in Dakshina Kannada.

Mr. D’Souza threatened on Saturday that he would sit in dharna in front of banks if they denied loans for installing roof top solar energy tapping units.

At a meeting here the MLC wanted to know from banks if they have any problems in advancing. But none of the bankers raised any problem.