The Fact News Service
Chandigarh, February 23
Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal stated that the state government is committed to providing 24X7 electricity supply to all, especially in rural areas. Under the ‘Mera Gaon Jagmag Gaon’ scheme 24-hour electricity is being supplied to 5,805 villages.
It is proposed to allocate Rs. 7,061.51 crore for the energy sector in the budget for the financial year 2024-25, he added.The Chief Minister said that last year he had announced that an 800 MW thermal power plant will be constructed in Yamunanagar in the year 2023-24.
The tender for its construction at a cost of Rs. 6,900 crore has recently been awarded to Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited. An MoU has also been signed by the Haryana Power Purchase Centre with Mahanadi Basin Power Ltd. for procurement of 800 MW power from a pit-head thermal power plant proposed to be established in Odisha.
However, State presently has sufficient power availability, the expected growth in electricity demand would be adequately covered in the future with these initiatives.
He said that Monthly minimum charges (MMC) are imposed by the Electricity Distribution Companies on consumers where their consumption is below a limit.
In Tariff Category-I where the monthly consumption is less than 200 units, the monthly minimum charges are Rs. 115 per kW for up to 2 kW. In order to provide relief to the poorest of the poor, it is proposed to eliminate the MMC for Tariff Category-I consumers with domestic connected load of up to 2 kW, CM added. This step will provide a relief of about Rs. 180 crore to the deprived families.
The Chief Minister said that Electricity connections are being released to deras and dhanis located up to a distance of 3 kilometre from the village phirnis. Service connection charges shall be recovered from the applicant up to 300 meters from village phirni against earlier provision of 150 meters and the cost of infrastructure will be borne by the DISCOMs.
He said that after completion of all the formalities in the year 2023-24, it was proposed to release of tube well connections to those who applied in the period 2019 to 2021. Of the 27,826 applications received, demand notices have been issued for 27,740 and the release of connections is likely to be completed soon.
CM said in the financial year 2023-24, it was proposed to set a target for the installation of 70,000 solar pumps under the PM-KUSUM scheme.
Compared to the target set before the financial year 2023-24, 67,418 solar pumps have already been installed in the state. Considering the popularity of this scheme and the enthusiasm of farmers towards it, a proposal has been made to install an additional 70,000 solar pumps in the financial year 2024-25.
