In what is being seen as a populist move targeted at next year’s Lok Sabha and assembly polls, Haryana chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar on Friday announced a penalty waiver for power consumers having a yearly income of less than one lakh rupees. Khattar said that all such families whose power connections have been cut off will get a complete waiver on their penalty amount.
“Irrespective of the default amount, such consumers will not have to pay more than the average bill of one year, even if their bill is pending for more than a year. Such families will have to pay a maximum of Rs 3,600 only for consumption on an average of 150 units per month. Out of the Rs 3,600, the consumers will have to make a payment of 25 per cent for the re-issuance of the power connections,” said Khattar while presiding over a meeting with the power department on Friday. Energy minister Ranjit Singh was also present.
The CM said that getting an adequate water and electricity supply is a fundamental right of any citizen. “Therefore, for the convenience of the citizens, it has been decided to provide electricity connections even in irregular colonies. Citizens will only have to apply for the connection, no other document will be sought from them and the power connection will be issued to them in about a month,” said Khattar.
The chief minister also directed the officers concerned that a scheme to voluntarily disclose the power load for agricultural tubewells launched in 2018 should be restarted for the farmers.
“If a farmer wants to install a bigger motor, he will now have to disclose a voluntary load, after which the load will be increased. Now the farmers will not face any difficulty in increasing their power load,” said Khattar.
Chairman of state power utilities PK Das said, “This scheme is for the poorest of the poor. Two conditions are there for eligibility. One is the family income has to be less than Rs 1 lakh and the second is average consumption is 150 units per month.”