Bhopal: Senior Congress leader Digvijaya Singh on Friday wrote to chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan demanding that the electricity bills of consumers should be waived for the Corona period from April 1st, 2020 to March 31st, 2022. “Through this letter, I would like to draw your attention to the problems being faced by more than 7.5 crore electricity consumers of the state. Today, lakhs of consumers are being harassed for recovery of electricity bill dues running to thousands of rupees and people are enraged,” the letter said.
The letter argued that the 15-month Congress government changed the Sambal Yojana and launched the Indira Griha Jyoti Yojana providing 100 units of power at Re 1 per unit. The benefit of the scheme was given to those who used up to 150 units of electricity per month. Digvijaya argued that consumers of all income groups got the benefit from the scheme.
“Presently, your government has changed the name of Indira Griha Jyoti Yojana to Atal Griha Jyoti Yojana. But now arbitrary electricity bills are being given to the consumers. At a time of rising inflation, this increased tariff would be a thunderbolt on the consumers,” Digvijaya Singh wrote. He further claimed that the erstwhile Kamal Nath government was providing 10 horsepower connections to farmers at Rs 700 under the Indira Kisan Jyoti Yojana while the present government is charging Rs 1400.
Digvijaya Singh alleged that most farmers use 5 horsepower connections while they have to pay for 10 horsepower. Digvijaya Singh also said that according to clause 11.3 of Chapter 11 of Madhya Pradesh Electricity Supply Code, if any transformer remains closed for 10 days or more or due to any other reason the power supply remains shut, then the amount of the bill for that period will be waived but that is not being done.