No hike in Rajasthan's power bill for next two yrs

There will be no power bill hike in the next two years in Rajasthan, Power Minister G S Kheenvsar told the state assembly on Tuesday.

"The BJP government has not raised the bill in its three years of rule so far and does not intend to do it during the remaining period," the minister said in his reply after a general debate on power and drought.

The power tariff would be reduced for below poverty line consumers from Rs 1.70 per unit to just 85 paise, he said. New agricultural connections would be provided within 90 days of application, he added.

Saying that the state's projects had generated a sum of 730 Mw of power from wind, biomass, and lignite based power projects, Kheenvsar said Rajasthan would be self-reliant in power generation by 2008-09, and would have surplus electricity by 2011.

He said the transmission and distribution losses were reduced from 42 per cent (2003-4) to 34 per cent (2007), and would be brought down to 20 per cent.

In his reply on the debate on drought, the Relief Minister K L Meena said, about 1.83 lakh labourers were given jobs as against 3.5 lakh in 19 districts.