Bhopal: The Shivraj government has taken an initiative to provide relief to domestic consumers of electricity in view of the havoc of Corona. On Thursday, an order was issued by the Energy Department not to recover the arrears till August 31 from domestic consumers up to one kilowatt. With this order, the government has also tried to thwart the bets of the Congress, because the Congress is constantly besieging the BJP government on the electricity bill. Therefore, this step has been taken in view of the threat of voters’ displeasure in the assembly by-elections.
It is worth mentioning that under Indira Gruh Jyoti Yojana of the erstwhile Congress Government, 100 units of electricity were being provided to the poor for Rs 100. This step has been taken due to the difficulty in paying bills to the low-income group electricity consumers of the state due to the corona virus epidemic. The order issued by Aakash Tripathi, Secretary, Department of Energy, instructed all domestic consumers of one kilowatt to issue bills based on their current monthly consumption only in September and October and not to add past dues and surcharges.
It has been clarified that the previous dues or arrears will not be included in the September bill. If a consumer has not paid the September dues in October, it will be added to the bill. A separate order will come about the arrears. The government has also made it clear that a separate order will be issued in the future regarding the outstanding bill till 31 August.
All the managing operators of power distribution companies have been asked to ensure strict compliance of the order. Congress had warned that the working president of the state Congress, Jitu Patwari, warned of the movement while circulating the government on the electricity bill.
The Indira Gruh Jyoti Yojana launched under Congress rule became popular among small consumers. The most eligible beneficiaries of this scheme are from Gwalior-Chambal division. In the by-election to be held in 27 assembly seats, 16 seats belong to this division. In this way, the BJP has tried this recipe of not charging the bill to thwart the Congress bets. The government has also ordered a solution for the increased bills by organizing camps in five days.
