Lucknow, Jan 6 (PTI) Amid various political parties seeking to woo voters with promises of free power and other freebies ahead of the assembly polls, the Uttar Pradesh government on Thursday announced a 50 per cent cut on farmers' electricity bills for running their tubewells.
The Chief Minister's office made the announcement on its official Twitter handle that said the decision to slash the power bills has been taken in the interest of farmers.
While the CM's office tweet tagged a picture of a newspaper advertisement announcing the relief for farmers, it also mentioned a cut in power bills for urban areas by half.
It was not immediately clear if the relief in urban areas was meant only for farmers in urban villages or all urban residents.
"Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath who is committed to the prosperity of farmers has decided to provide a 50 per cent rebate on the present rate of the electricity on their private tubewells, the tweet said.
Accordingly, the revised rate for metered power connection would be Rs 1 per unit instead of Rs 2 now and the fixed charge on one horsepower motors would be Rs 35 instead of the present rate of Rs 70 per meter, it said.
Likewise for power connection without meter, the charge would be Rs 85 for one horsepower, half of Rs 170 taken presently.
In Urban areas, those having metered connection, electricity charge per unit would be Rs 3 in place of the present rate of Rs 6 and fixed meter rental charge of Rs 65 instead of Rs 130 collected currently.
It may be noted that various political parties have been outdoing each other in promising freebies, especially free electricity, among others ahead of the upcoming assembly elections in five states, including Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Punjab, Goa and Manipur.
In Uttar Pradesh, Samajwadi Party and Aam Aadmi Party have promised to provide free up to 300 units of electricity, if voted to power.
