Registration on Seva Sindhu must for Gruha Jyothi

The state government on Monday issued an executive order for the Gruha Jyothi scheme, one of the guarantees that propelled the Congress to power, and released guidelines to avail free power supply.

Consumers who want to enjoy the benefit have to apply through the Seva Sindhu portal and each Customer ID must compulsorily be linked with Aadhaar. Gruha Jyothi will come into effect from the power bill of July that will be generated in August.

While officials estimate that 96-98 per cent of the households in Karnataka will qualify for the scheme, it has come under criticism from the Opposition for its caveats.

The government will assess the eligibility of consumers by taking the annual average consumption of a household with a 10 per cent buffer on top of it. If this number falls within 200 units, the consumer need not pay any electricity bill.

Read | Gruha Jyothi will cover 96% households, says Energy Minister K J George

In addition, if a household's consumption exceeds the annual average plus the 10 per cent buffer, but still falls within 200 units, they have to pay only for the additional units used, according to the order.

For instance, if the annual average consumption of a household is 70 units, they will be eligible for free electricity up to 77 units (by adding the 10 per cent buffer). If their consumption in a certain month goes up to 80 units, they will have to pay for the three extra units. A "net bill" will be generated in such instances, the order stated.

However, if a household's annual average consumption exceeds 200 units, they have to pay the entire electricity bill.

While this has caused heartburn among a section of the consumers, sources in the energy department said this caveat was introduced to make sure that people are prudent.

The government will also consider only one Revenue Register (RR) meter per consumer. In cases where multiple meters are registered in one person's name, only one meter will be taken into account.

The government has also urged consumers who have arrears to pay the pending bills within three months, failing which their electricity connections will be terminated.

The order is silent on inclusion of new buildings under the scheme.

Speaking to DH, some officials said they are discussing having new buildings included in the next year's cycle. "New buildings were dropped from the scheme for this year as we cannot assess their annual consumption," a source said.