Power tariffs to be slashed soon, hints Haryana CM

KAITHAL: Haryana chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar on Friday hinted that electricity rates will soon be reduced and consumers, who do not have meters, will be given an opportunity to pay their power bills on the basis of the average of the last one year and also, the penalty and interest on such consumers will also be waived off.

Khattar, who was addressing a gathering at village Kaul, said consumers who had not paid their electricity bills will be given an opportunity to pay the same over two years in 12 installments. “No penalty and interest would be levied on them,” he said.

“It would bring them out of the bracket of defaulters. In Kaithal, power losses ranging from 20% to 83% were registered in villages only,” he added.

Flaying the previous governments, Khattar described them as the governments of transfer, recruitment and CLU permissions. “The present government had implemented a transparent transfer policy and the youth were being given jobs on the basis of merit,” he said.

Referring to the statement of former chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda that he would not allow acquisition of even a single inch of farmers’ land, Khattar said under the present government,

the land was being acquired only with farmers’ consent and, that too, for road projects only. He said as a result of the transparent recruitment policy of the state government, 30

youth of a nearby village got employment. “Contrary to this, under the previous governments, the youth had to sell land and ornaments to get government jobs,” Khattar said.