August electricity bill will reveal who is eligible for Gruha Jyothi scheme

BENGALURU: The Gruha Jyothi scheme, under which electricity consumers can avail of free electricity up to 200 units, has got rolling from July 1, but information about those who will benefit from it will be known only when the bill for July usage is generated in August.

All the five Escoms in the state have been given details of power consumers who have registered for the Gruha Jyothi scheme on the Seva Sindhu portal of the state government. The Escom staff will now compute the annual average usage of the consumers, with a 10 per cent margin.

So far, 86 lakh power consumers have registered for the free power scheme, Bescom managing director Mahantesh Bilagi told Public TV. In Bengaluru, of the 90 lakh consumers, 34 lakh have registered for the scheme, he said and asked eligible consumers to register at the earliest.

The Escom staff are computing the data on power consumption and officials are also discussing on possible changes to the billing pattern, slabs on usage and other issues. The number of power consumers who will actually be eligible for the scheme will be known only after the bill is generated in August, he explained.

Senior Escom officials on Friday held a meeting with the government on the how the bill should be generated, billing logic, technical preparedness and other issues. According to officials, there may be two or three more columns introduced in the bill next month and may be slightly different from the present bill to give a breakup of the total number of units of power consumed, how much of it will be free and for how much excess use the consumers willl have to pay. If the usage falls within the parameters of the scheme, consumers will get zero bills, the officials explained.

Energy Minister K J George said only those who apply will be considered for the Gruha Jyothi scheme.

Meanwhile, Energy Minister K J George, who was in Chikkamagalur on Saturday, said applications can be filed till July 20-25 and added that those who have not applied for the Gruha Jyothi scheme will not be eligible for 200 units of free power.

If citizens are facing problems with connecting to the server, they can go to the local Escom offices and submit their applications. There is much less pressure on the servers now. If consumers apply late, they will become eligible for the scheme later.