Haryana has done remarkable work in power sector: Khattar

Chandigarh: Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar attended the 83rd meeting of the Forum of Regulators, organised by the Haryana Electricity Regulatory Commission as chief guest here today. Addressing the chairpersons and members of the Electricity Regulatory Commissions from other states, the Chief Minister said that in the last 8 years, Haryana has done remarkable work in the power sector, which has paved the way for Haryana to become one of the leading states in the country in terms of providing electricity.

He said that with the objective of providing 24-hour electricity to the villages, the state government initiated 'Mhara Gaon-Jagmag Gaon Yojana' from Kurukshetra in 2016, adding that today, 5,680 villages in the state; about 80 percent villages are getting 24-hour power supply.

Talking about the concept of free electricity, as some states have done, the Chief Minister said that Haryana has rejected this concept as 'free electricity is no electricity'. "This neither benefits the consumers nor the government. The people of Haryana have also understood this and are fully supporting the government," he added. Sh. Manohar Lal said that the state government has taken stringent steps to check non-payment of electricity bills. He said that the government started an initiative and appealed to the citizens across the state to pay the bills, which garnered public cooperation and today Haryana is setting up new dimensions in the power sector.

The Chief Minister said that in order to strengthen the power sector, the state government provided relief to the consumers by waiving off the overcharge. "Not only this, defaulted consumers were given an option to pay the principal amount of their electricity bills in installments and the interest and surcharge of crores of rupees was also waived off. On the strength of these initiatives taken by the state government, Haryana has become one of the leading states in the Energy Efficiency Rank, in the last two years," he asserted.