Himachal Pradesh Chief minister Jai Ram Thakur announced free electricity to households who consume up to 60 units per month and slashed tariff for some other categories on 52nd Statehood Day on Tuesday.
The decision has come in the election year as the state Assembly polls are scheduled to be held by year-end. Addressing a state-level function at the Thodo ground in Solan, Thakur said the domestic consumers whose electricity consumption is up to 60 units per month will not be charged any money. The domestic consumers whose electricity consumption is up to 125 units will be charged only Re 1 per unit, he said.Over 11 lakh domestic consumers will be benefitted from this decision and the state government will incur an additional expenditure of Rs 60 crore on providing this relief, an official spokesman said.Further providing relief to farmers, the CM announced to reduce the present cost of electricity from 50 paise to 30 paise per unit. These benefits will be applicable from April this year.The CM announced to increase the limit of maximum annual income for availing the benefit of various welfare schemes and pensions for weaker sections of society from existing Rs 35,000 to Rs 50,000. Thakur said all constables appointed after 2015 will be eligible for higher pay scale.The CM said new pay scales for state government employees have recently been announced to ensure benefits of about Rs 6,000 crore to about 2.25 lakh employees. He said it was felt that few disparities existed in the new pay scales of few categories.
He announced that now employees will be given a third option besides two options already given to them. Pensioners of the state government will also be given pension as per the new pay scales of the Punjab government. This will benefit about 1.75 lakh pensioners by providing financial benefits of about Rs 2,000 crore, he added. Thakur also announced 31 per cent DA to all state employees on a par with central government employees. On Statehood Day, the CM unfurled the Tricolour and took salute from the contingents of police, IRB, Home Guards and NCC.The parade was commanded by DSP Pranav Chauhan.
