Bengaluru: Confusion has arisen as the Siddaramaiah Government has given in-principle consent to the Congress Guarantee Scheme promises made to the people in the Karnataka Election.
During the election campaign, Congress leaders including Siddaramaiah, D. K. Shivakumar had assured that they would implement this in the first cabinet as they came to power. The first Cabinet meeting of the government was held on May 20 and only in-principle approval was given. For this reason, people are questioning when this guarantee scheme will be implemented.
Among these guarantees, the ‘Gruha Jyoti’ declaration has attracted the most. Congress leaders had assured that no one will have to pay electricity tariffs from June. Due to this, people are now confused whether to pay the electricity bill or not. BESCOM official claims, As the Congress government has come to power. The people of the rural areas are telling us that we will not pay the electricity bill. We have not received any order to provide 200 units of free electricity. We are getting the bill done by persuading the public. It remains to be seen how the government order will be. Top BESCOM sources said that till the order is officially implemented, no one can go without paying the bill.
In rural areas, on an average, each house consumes 60 to 100 units of electricity per month. The number of people who consume more than 200 units of electricity is very rare.
Now that 200 units of free electricity will be given, the consumption will increase further and there is also a risk of careless consumption. Electricity charges are likely to be more than Rs. 1,600 as per present tariff calculations. For this reason, it is not possible to calculate the amount of money required for this project by taking the current electricity consumption as a standard. Additional funds will have to be earmarked for this project from the government treasury.