Nitish Kumar's poll sop: Free electricity for consumers upto 125 units

Chief Minister Nitish Kumar said the move to provide free electricity will benefit around 16.7 million families in Bihar

Don't want to miss the best from Business Standard?

With months left for the Bihar Assembly elections, Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Thursday announced that his government will provide free electricity up to 125 units to every household starting August 1.

 

In a post on X, Nitish Kumar said the move will benefit around 16.7 million families. "We have been providing electricity to everyone at affordable rates from the very beginning. Now we have decided that from August 1, 2025, that is, from the July bill itself, all domestic consumers in the state will not have to pay any money for electricity up to 125 units," he said.

 

The chief minister also said that in the next three years, solar power plants will be installed on rooftops of households or at nearby public places to provide benefits to consumers. This will be done with the consent of all domestic consumers, he said.

 

"Under the Kutir Jyoti scheme, for extremely poor families, the state government will bear the entire cost of installing solar power plants, and for the rest, the government will provide appropriate support. This means domestic consumers will no longer have to bear any cost for electricity up to 125 units, and at the same time, it is estimated that within the next three years, up to 10,000 megawatts of solar energy will be available in the state," he said. 

Also Read | Bihar elections 2025: What's at stake, who's competing, and why it counts

  On Wednesday, the chief minister a day earlier, Bihar CM Kumar directed the Education Department to promptly assess vacancies for teachers in government schools and initiate the process for conducting the Teacher Recruitment Examination (TRE) 4 at the earliest.  In a post on X, Kumar wrote, "The Education department has been instructed to identify vacancies of teachers in government schools and initiate the process to conduct the TRE-4 examination at the earliest. The state government has already clarified that the benefit of 35 per cent reservation for women in appointments will be given to those who are residents of Bihar."  The TRE-4 is expected to provide opportunities to over 1.20 lakh teacher aspirants, according to news agency PTI. In TRE-1 and 2, 1.70 lakh and 70,000 teachers were appointed, while in TRE-3, 66,603 posts were filled while the number of vacancies were 87,774.  Meanwhile, Nitish Kumar chaired a meeting of the Bihar Cabinet on Tuesday, which cleared a proposal of 10 million jobs and employment opportunities in the next five years. The Cabinet also approved the constitution of a 12-member committee headed by a development commissioner to explore the possibilities and take decisions in this regard.  Bihar goes to polls later this year.    (With inputs from agencies) 

Also Read | A poll quest for Bihar's 'forgotten people': Contesting for the tribal vote