Farmers were shaken when the process of receiving online applications for the creation of mini-solar plants connected to the grid exceeded seven minutes Thursday morning. The process was carried out for control of the State of Karnataka Renewable Energy Development Ltd. (KREDL). 

Under this scheme, farmers who settled these power plants would have a tariff of Rs. 8.40 per unit of power sold to Escoms.

KREDL had called for online applications for building solar power plants with a capacity of one to three megawatts on their farms. There was an enthusiastic response to this pet project, Energy Minister DK Shivakumar. 

Some farmers who spoke to The Hindu from different regions of the state claimed that they could not even open the website. However, KREDL said the process closed, as it has received sufficient responses for a total capacity of 300 MW. 

But farmers allege that the process lacked transparency and suspect that only those close to the centers of power managed to send their applications.