M.P. curtails free power

By Our Staff Correspondent

BHOPAL, DEC. 12. Finding itself in a tight corner due to the prevailing power crisis, the Madhya Pradesh Cabinet has decided to restrict free supply of electricity for single-point connections to Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe families living below the poverty line.

The Cabinet has also decided to tone down its existing policy of distributing free electricity to farmers for running their irrigation pumps upto 5 horse-power.

Now, this facility too would be restricted to SC/ST farmers possessing one hectare of irrigated land.

There would be a limit of 20 watts of free electricity for those who would now be entitled to receive free electricity for their single-point connections and their consumption would be monitored through metered power supply.

Under the revised policy, only 63,000 farmers will get free electricity instead of the present 9.5 lakh farmers.

Similarly, 18 lakh consumers were getting free electricity for their single-point connections and this will now come down to 2.5 lakhs.

The Cabinet has also approved the Madhya Pradesh Energy Assessment Compounding and Recovery Act to prevent illegal use and theft of electricity and to develop an effective mechanism to check this.

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