LUCKNOW, Sept. 9 -- Farmers on Tuesday staged demonstrations at the offices of distribution companies' managing directors in Agra, Meerut and Varanasi, as well as at Shakti Bhawan in Lucknow, demanding assured electricity supply for irrigation.

The protest, organised under the banner of the Bharatiya Kisan Union (Bhanu), included farmers -- many of them women -- from neighbouring districts such as Unnao, Hardoi, Barabanki, Rae Bareli, Sitapur, Bahraich, Gonda, Amethi and Sultanpur. A memorandum was submitted seeking at least 15 hours of daily power supply to agriculture feeders and private tubewells across Uttar Pradesh.

"Our three key demands are replacement of faulty transformers within 24 hours, implementation of the free power order...