The newly appointed Karnataka government led by Siddaramaiah has issued detailed guidelines for the implementation of the Gruha Jyothi scheme, under which free electricity below 200 units every month will be distributed to all households. It will be implemented from July 1.
Gruha Jyothi scheme is one of the five poll guarantees that the Congress party had proposed in its election manifesto. The guarantee offers up to 200 units of electricity free of cost to domestic consumers.
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The recent guidelines have been issued by the Karnataka Energy Department, under which, it noted that the free power supply will be dependent on the monthly average consumption of a household and will be capped at 200 units.
The average will be calculated by the electricity supply companies, based on the power consumed by the households in 2022-23.
Talking about the scheme, CM Siddaramaiah said: “Those who consume electricity within 200 units are not required to pay the bill. This also applies to tenants. This does not only apply to commercial buildings.”
Here are the top points of the scheme:
* According to the latest guidelines, if a house consumes 100 units on average for 12 months, it is then eligible for 110 units of free electricity. This includes the 10 per cent additional offered by the government.
* The government had said that power usage of up to 10 per cent more than the average monthly usage calculated will be free for the household. Therefore, till 110 units the amount will be free. Anything above that will have to be paid by the consumers.
* Similarly, if a consumer uses about 150 units of electricity a month on an average, he can get free power up to 165 units of power.
* Houses with more than 200 units as the monthly average won’t come under the newly introduced free electricity scheme. They will have to pay the full bill amount.
* If one house has two or three meters (RR number), only one will be considered for the scheme.
* The excess consumption will be the ‘net bill’ for consumers and will be printed in bills generated from August.
* The scheme is applicable only to domestic connections and not for commercial use.
* Households that want to avail of the offer will have to apply on the Seva Sindhu portal.
* It is an Aadhaar-linked scheme. Customers will have to link their customer IDs to Aadhaar numbers.
Besides, the state government has said that existing power supply schemes for the poor, such as Bhagya Jyothi and Kuteera Jyothi, will be merged under the new scheme.
Consumers have been given a three-month period to pay pending bills for power used till June 30.
‘Shakti’ scheme
Besides the ‘Gruha Jyoti’, the government has also issued orders for fulfilling the ‘Shakthi’ free bus travel for women scheme from June 11.
The transport department will issue ‘Shakthi Smart Cards’ for the beneficiaries. Women passengers can issue these cards in the next three months and travel free of cost on buses. Luxury buses including Rajahamsa, non-AC sleepers, Airavat, and Ambari, have been exempted from the scheme.
Also, the government has said that 50 per cent of the seats will be reserved for men in buses of Karnataka State Road Transport Corporation, North West Karnataka Road Transport Corporation, and Kalyana Karnataka Road Transport Corporation.
(With agency inputs)
