Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar today said that every household in the state would get electricity by the end of next year and exhorted people to start practising rational use of power to avoid fat bills.
Survey work has been carried on households still not having power connection and the government would provide free electricity connection to all such households across Bihar by the end of 2017, Kumar said at the 'Chetna Sabha' here in course of his 'Nishchay yatra.'
Power was an important election issue during the 2015 Bihar polls.
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Prime Minister Narendra Modi has repeatedly made references to dismal power situation in the state almost in every rally he had addressed in Bihar at that time.
Kumar has refuted the charges by stating that power situation had been continuously improving in the state with urban areas enjoying electricity on an average for 20 hours daily while rural areas have 14-15 hours of power.
Kumar also exhorted people to start practising rational use of electricity to avoid heavy power bills.
"Sometimes, out of callousness, people forget to switch off lights after use. We should use electricity only when required and ensure that lights are switched off after use to avoid fat power bills," Kumar said.
Providing free electricity connection to every household forms a part of "seven resolves" which the grand alliance government has adopted as policy of "sushasan" (good governance) for rest of its term, he said.
Kumar had launched 'Har ghar bijli lagataar' programme on November 15 in Patna to achieve this target.
Launching the key programme, the CM had promised to provide free electricity connection to about 50 lakh households above the poverty line deprived of power connection so far. The objective would be met at an investment of Rs 1857.5 crore.
Referring to the title of the book, Kumar said the
opposition was not afraid of anything and recalled its leaders, including him, were jailed during the Emergency.
"There is no democracy without dialogue and debate," he said and appealed to the opposition for maximum unity against the ruling BJP.
He said the opposition should not be merely reactive. It should prepare its own agenda and follow it, he added. "Why should they set the agenda? Why not Rahul Gandhi."
Kumar said when they don't have anything to show, then they indulge in debate on communalism and polarise discourse.
Asked if the opposition unity was possible and whether they would agree on a leader, Yechury said unity should be on the basis of a common agenda and not personalities.
It is not a problem of a leader as you are suggesting, he told the questioner and added that how after the fall of the Vajpayee government two prime ministers, H D Deve Gowda and I K Gujral, were chosen out of the blue.
"Personality is something very inherent in our democracy and leaders evolve," he said and recalled how questions used to be asked "after Nehru who".
Opposition unity will come on a minimum agreed programme, he said.
Answering questions, Chidambaram accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi of lowering the standards of debate in Parliament, by attacking Singh in a language not befitting his office.
To a question on the breakdown of relation between the government and Congress, he said it did not happen in the past when Morarji Desai was the Prime Minister nor was it during the United Front government.
The breakdown happened now because on the very first occasion after coming to power that they would like to have "Congress-free India". That spoiled the relationship, he said, noting that Congress never called for BJP-free India.
Yechury also disapproved of the Prime Minister's language, saying it was his duty to take action against anyone guilty of anything but not issue threats like "I have the janampatri of all Congressmen."
Chidambaram also said there was divisive agenda everywhere promoted by BJP and only fearless action by opposition can stop it.
He also said that former RBI Governor Raghuram Rajan was willing to continue but conditions were made for him to leave it. He also dismissed comparison on the differences he had with another governor D Subbarao, saying the latter had completed two full terms and in fact he had written a foreward to his book from which Modi quoted.
