Rejecting the free power being provided by some state governments to domestic consumers, Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar on Friday said that free electricity means no electricity.

Addressing the 83^rd meeting of the Forum of Regulators, organised by the Haryana Electricity Regulatory Commission, Khattar said that Haryana has rejected this concept of ‘free electricity’ as “this neither benefits the consumers nor the government.”

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“The people of Haryana have also understood this and are fully supporting the government,” he added.

The CM said the state government has taken stringent steps to check non-payment of electricity bills and with public cooperation, today Haryana is setting up new dimensions in the power sector.

He said in order to strengthen the power sector, the state government provided relief to the consumers by waiving off the overcharge.

“Not only this, defaulted consumers were given an option to pay the principal amount of their electricity bills in installments and the interest and surcharge of crores of rupees was also waived off,” Khattar added.

The CM said in the last eight years, Haryana has done remarkable work in the power sector, which has paved the way for Haryana to become one of the leading states in the country in terms of providing electricity.

He said at present, about 80 per cent villages are getting 24-hour power supply. The CM said the state government has not increased the electricity rates in the last eight years. He said that the Fuel Surcharge Adjustment (FSA) was 37 paisa, which was abolished.

“Not only this, the electricity rate was Rs 4.50 per unit up to 150 units, which was reduced and the rate was fixed at Rs 2.50 per unit up to 200 units and Rs 2 per unit for monthly electricity consumption up to 50 units,” he added.

The CM said the line loss in the state was 29 per cent in 2014, which has come down to 14 per cent today. With this, about Rs 6,000 Crore have been saved and due to the efforts of the government and power corporations, today all the four power corporations of Haryana are in a position of dividend, he said, adding the government has laid emphasis on curbing electricity theft, reducing line loss and strengthening the metering system.

Khattar said that to strengthen the broadcasting network, 57 new sub-stations have been established at a cost of Rs 3,679 Crore and the capacity of 522 sub-stations has also been increased, from October 2014 till now. He said 50,000 new transformers were also installed in the state.