Letter to BS: States should resist temptation to hand out free electricity

The much-touted UDAY scheme has only managed to shift the burden to the state governments instead of reducing power theft and achieving efficiency in operations

Apropos the editorial “Power populism” (February 13), distribution of cash and liquor to electorates before elections has been replaced these days by freebies like free power, water, bicycles, laptops, gold ornaments for marriage, medical treatment etc. at public expense. The provision of free power leads to misuse, an example being farmers leaving their electric pump sets on through night, leading to depletion of groundwater and salinity of land parcels. Similarly, in a recent report, the Comptroller and Auditor General of India said that a third of PM Ujjwala Yojana beneficiaries failed to book replacements leading to the belief that they