‘What a fraud’: BJP trains guns at Karnataka's Congress govt over free power scheme after electricity tariff hike

A day after the Karnataka government rolled out the ‘Gruha Jyoti’ free electricity scheme, one of the five poll guarantees that the Congress had promised in its election manifesto, the BJP on Tuesday lashed out at the Siddaramaiah government for making the people feel hard done by raising the power tariffs in the state. Terming the move ‘Congress ka dhokha’, BJP National Spokesperson Shehzad Poonawala said forget free electricity, the Congress has instead allowed the raising of power tariffs which will make the electricity bills dearer substantially. Taking to Twitter, he said," Remember the “Gruha Jyoti” scheme promise of 200 units free electricity Congress had promised to people of Karnataka. Forget free electricity - Congress has allowed the raising of power tariffs."

Karnataka Congress ka dhokha

Remember the “Gruha Jyoti” scheme promise of 200 units free electricity Congress had promised to people of Karnataka

Forget free electricity - Congress has allowed the raising of power tariffs

1) Power bills for Bescom consumers to be up by… pic.twitter.com/3ErQXOQZeD

— Shehzad Jai Hind (Modi Ka Parivar) (@Shehzad_Ind) June 6, 2023

He explained that the power bills for Bescom consumers will go up by Rs 2.89 per unit and  across categories tariffs will be up by 70 paise per unit. “Conditions have been put on “free electricity” scheme - example: The monthly average consumption of customers (Monthly average of 2022-23) will be used to calculate how many units of free electricity a house will receive under the scheme.  The customers will be eligible for only 10% more units of their monthly usage average. WHAT A FRAUD,” he tweeted along with posting news clips suggesting the hike in tariffs. He also pointed out how in Himachal Pradesh the Congress after promising free electricity of 300 units raised the rates of electricity after coming to power and betrayed the promise of Rs 1500 per month to women. “Congress means Dhokha.  Till date they have not fulfilled kisan karz maafi in Rajasthan. Will the Rahul Jodi media ask Congress & Rahul about this? I doubt it,” he tweeted. According to the Karnataka government order issued on Monday, the ‘Gruha Jyoti’ scheme will be applicable only for domestic use and not commercial connections. Under the scheme, the government will take into account the one-year average power consumption in 2022-23 financial year and will give free electricity up to 10 per cent more than the average usage. If a consumer uses about 150 units of electricity a month on an average, he can get free power up to 165 units of power. If he exceeds the limit, then he will have to pay for the rest of the units consumed, which will be the net power consumption. However, if the usage exceeds 200 units of power, the consumer will have to pay the full amount of the electricity bill. Consumers have to pay the arrears till 30 June within three months. The electricity meter usage and the meter reading have been made mandatory. The total electricity consumption will be displayed in the monthly bill, the order said. Every beneficiary has to link the customer ID or account ID with Aadhaar number. Any consumer cannot integrate more than one electricity meter with the scheme. Those who want to avail benefit will have to enrol themselves in the ‘Seva Sindhu’ portal of the state government. The government also mentioned that the beneficiaries of ‘Bhagya Jyoti’, ‘Kuteera Jyoti’ and ‘Amruta Jyoti’ schemes, which are various existing schemes offering free electricity to the economically and socially backward communities, will be merged with the ‘Gruha Jyoti’ scheme. The government said the cost of the free electricity provided to the consumers will be compensated to the electricity supply companies. With inputs from agencies Read all the Latest News , Trending News , Cricket News , Bollywood News , India News and Entertainment News here. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.