Congress govt launches gas cylinder, free power schemes

Hyderabad: Two more guarantees - Mahalakshmi (cooking gas cylinder supply at Rs 500) and Gruha Jyoti (free power supply up to 200 units) schemes - have been launched in the state on Tuesday. They would be made available for the beneficiaries from March.

The Energy department will issue zero bills to power consumers using up to 200 units of power and Gruha Jyoti scheme beneficiaries will get the reimbursement of the gas subsidy amount through DBT (Direct Benefit Transfer) initially.

Accompanied by Civil Supplies Minister N Uttam Kumar Reddy and Energy Minister Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka, Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy formally launched the two schemes in the secretariat. In view of the election code due to MLC election of Mahbubnagar local bodies constituency, the launch of the two schemes were kept as a low-key affair.

The Chief Minister said his government was striving to create the “Telangana Model” which would be adopted by other states in the future. Despite the state facing financial crisis, he said, the Congress government was fulfilling all its promises made during the Assembly elections while adopting strict fiscal discipline and also finding ways and means to implement the promises made to the people. Revanth Reddy said the Modi government at the Centre had increased the cost of gas cylinder to Rs 1,000. “Former Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao had never thought of providing relief to the poor by supplying cooking gas at affordable prices as GST from the sale of increased cylinder prices was important to him and not people’s welfare,” the CM said.

Uttam Reddy said the subsidy amount of the gas cylinder would be given to the consumers through DBT. He clarified that all white ration card holders would be eligible to avail the scheme. This would benefit 40 lakh families, the minister said.

Bhatti Vikramarka appealed to all electricity consumers to stop paying bills up to 200 units of power consumption. He cautioned the people not to fall prey to the false propaganda by the Opposition on free power supply on the social media.