Chandigarh: The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government will provide 300 units free electricity every month to each household in Punjab from July 1; this was one of the several pre-poll sops announced by the AAP before it stormed to power in the February assembly election.
Even as chief minister Bhagwant Mann made the announcement on social media, the entire regional media was swamped with state government advertisements, hawking it as ‘‘a 30-day report card’’ of the AAP government and highlighting some of its major decisions since it came to power on March 16.
These included the ‘one-MLA, one-pension’ scheme, withdrawal of excess security of all MLAs, 100% procurement, revamp of rehabilitation centres for drug addicts, the release of over Rs 101 crore compensation to farmers, and directions to private schools against increasing fees.
Elaborating on the free power scheme, Mann said that backward castes and below the poverty line households, as well as freedom fighters, would also get the free power concession. They used to get 200 units earlier. It may be noted that Punjab currently provides free electricity to the agricultural sector.
Mann explained that households that consume more than 600 units of electricity in two months, say, 640 units or 645 units, would have to pay only for the extra 40 or 45 units that they have consumed.
``We will soon be coming out with all details,’’ he said.
It is understood Mann has already met AAP supremo Arvind Kejriwal and discussed with him the financial details and dynamics of the said scheme. Meanwhile, the chief minister and a team of his officials are likely to visit Delhi schools on Monday to look at their functioning.
Last month, in its first decision, the Punjab cabinet announced it would provide a total of 25,000 government jobs. Mann has also announced an anti-corruption helpline through a WhatsApp number.
The AAP had recorded a landslide victory in the February 20 assembly election, winning 92 of the state’s total 117 seats. The Congress -- which was ridden with internal strife -- won 18, the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD), three, its ally BSP, one, the BJP, two, and only one independent candidate could win.
Almost all the tall leaders of the Congress, the SAD, and the BJP and former CM Capt Amarinder Singh, who had floated his Punjab Lok Congress (PLC) ahead of polls, faced a drubbing.
