In a populist decision ahead of this year’s Assembly election, Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot on Thursday announced a complete waiver of fuel surcharge for all domestic and agricultural power consumers in the State. The waiver was earlier applicable only to those consuming electricity up to 200 units in a month.
Making the announcement during the launch of the Indira Gandhi Smartphone Yojana at a programme here, Mr. Gehlot said the decision would put an extra burden of ₹2,500 crore, which would be borne by the State government. The public sector power distribution company will get the amount from the State government.
“It was a public demand that there should be no fuel surcharge for any consumer, whether domestic or agricultural. No consumers will be required to pay the surcharge ever after using more than 200 units of electricity,” Mr. Gehlot said. The surcharge was added to the electricity bills depending upon the prices of coal purchased for power production.
The Congress government had in June this year waived power bill charges for the first 100 units for all domestic consumers and also announced waiver of fixed charges on electricity connections as well as the fuel surcharge and all other charges for power consumption up to 200 units in a month.
The State government had received the reports of practical difficulties faced by power consumers because of slab-wise exemption in the inflation relief camps organised during the last three months. While the Opposition BJP had made an issue out of it, the Congress MLAs also gave feedback about the negative impact during the election year.
The State government is already providing 2,000 units of electricity free of cost every month to the farmers with a view to giving them relief from high input costs of agriculture. More than 11 lakh agricultural power consumers are getting the benefit.
Mr. Gehlot distributed smartphones equipped with internet connectivity among women under a new scheme at the programme held in B.M. Birla Auditorium here. He handed over the devices to some school girls, while pointing out that widows and single women’s pension recipients and the families having girl students had been selected in the first phase of the scheme.
Forty-lakh beneficiaries will receive smartphones and SIM cards complete with data connectivity during the first phase of the Indira Gandhi Smartphone Yojana, while 80 lakh phones will be given in the next phase. Mr. Gehlot also inaugurated 400 smartphone distribution camps across the State, where the beneficiaries will choose their preferred phone facilitated by a deposit of Rs.6,800 through direct benefit transfer by the State government.
The Chief Minister said the scheme was aimed at women’s empowerment. He later told reporters that the benefit of an additional 6% reservation, announced at a rally in Banswara district’s Mangarh on Wednesday, would go to the Most Backward Class (MBC) in the Other Backward Class (OBC) category. With this announcement, the reservation for OBCs in the State has gone up from 21% to 27%. (EOM)
