Punjab to provide 600 units of free power to every household per billing cycle
Darpan News Desk IANS, 06 Jul, 2022 11:19 AM
Chandigarh, July 6 (IANS) In a major relief to households, the Punjab Cabinet led by Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann on Wednesday gave approval to provide 600 units of free power to every household per billing cycle in the state with effect from July 1.
A spokesman for the Chief Minister's office said all domestic consumers in the state would be eligible to get zero bills if their consumption is up to 600 units in every billing cycle.
This will give a big reprieve to the domestic consumers who have to hitherto shell out huge money every month in the form of power tariff.
As per the decision, the Scheduled Castes (SC), none SC BPL and backward class domestic consumers, who are currently eligible for free 400 units (per billing cycle), will also get subsidy of 600 units now.
Likewise, freedom fighters of Punjab and their successors, up to grandchildren, and domestic consumers, who are currently eligible for free 400 units, will also get subsidy of 600 units per billing cycle.
In case, the consumption of the SC, non-SC BPL, backward class and freedom fighter categories exceeds units per billing cycle then they will pay only for units consumed in addition to 600 units along with full fixed charges, meter rentals and government levies as applicable.
Similarly, the Cabinet also gave green signal for waiving off pending arrears of all domestic consumers as on December 31, 2021, and unpaid up to June 30, 2022. This move will give relief to around 28.10 lakh domestic consumers with a total benefit of Rs 1,298 crore.
Most of these farmers had earlier stated that they were present at the spot but were not involved in the attack. They were, at that time, charged under bailable sections such as 'rioting' and 'voluntarily causing hurt' and were let off by the SIT officials under Section 41 of the CrPC.
The Congress is witnessing internal bickering on the issue of security breach of the Prime Minister and Congress MP from Punjab Manish Tewari has termed the incidence as most unfortunate and said the matter should be probed by a sitting High Court Judge.
Addressing a gathering in Tanda in Hoshiarpur district after laying the foundation stone of development work, the Chief Minister said there was no threat to the life of the Prime Minister but he cancelled his programme on Wednesday because of the thin presence of people at the BJP's rally.
High drama was witnessed on Thursday after 125 of 179 international passengers, who arrived at Sri Guru Ram Das Jee International Airport Rajasansi, near here, from Italy, in an Air India flight tested positive on arrival. The Covid passengers were asked to quarantine in local hospital as per the guidelines of the government.
On Wednesday, The Prime Minister's rally in Ferozepur had to be cancelled due to a security lapse after some protesters blocked a route and forced his convoy to spend about 20 minutes on a flyover. The Prime Minister was enroute the National Martyrs Memorial at Hussainiwala when the incident happened.
Although the department has all infrastructural needs in place to deal with the large number of cases expected in case of the third wave becoming a reality, he also appealed to the people to get themselves fully vaccinated against the virus as it is the most potent tool to avoid Covid-19.
