Power sop in Punjab
Jangveer Singh/GS Paul
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh/Amritsar, Dec 10
With an eye on the forthcoming elections, the Punjab Cabinet at a meeting presided over by Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal, restored free power available to Scheduled Caste and Below Poverty Line families for domestic consumption to 200 units per month.

This was reduced to 100 units per month following the recommendations of the Sukhbir-Kalia committee in January 2010. This means the government will have to double the Rs 350 crore annual subsidy on account of this concession to Punjab State Power Corporation Limited.

Sources said the latest concession has been given to blunt criticism from the Congress that the government had halved the power subsidy being given to the poor.

The number of households which will benefit from subsidised power is now 15 lakh. The figure constitutes 35 per cent of the state’s population.

In another major decision, the government decided not to recover the arrears of tubewell bills from the farmers for the period during which the free power facility was not given to them. The Cabinet reiterated the SAD-BJP government’s commitment to continue the free power facility for tubewell connections for farmers as well as for domestic consumption for poor households.