Karnataka villagers refuse to pay bill as Congress promised free electricity

Congress is yet to form the government in Karnataka but some residents of Jalikatte village refused to pay their electricity bill citing their election promise of free electricity. A video of the villagers went viral even as BJP IT Cell chief Amit Malaviya remarked that if Congress doesn't form a government soon, chaos will prevail in the State.

Chitradurga (Karnataka) : A video went viral on social media that residents of a village in Chitradurga refused to pay the electricity bill and exhorted others also not to pay because Congress, which had promised free electricity, had offered to implement it as soon as they come to power. Congress got a comfortable majority in the May 10 elections and the government has not been formed yet.

Even before the formation of the government, the video on the implementation of the Congress promises started doing rounds on social media. The video showed the people of Jalikatte in the Chitradurga district refusing to pay the electricity bill. Villagers told the Bescom bill collectors who came to collect the bill that they won't pay the electric bill because Congress has given assurance.

If Congress form a government, we will provide free electricity from Bescom. We have not received the order yet. The Bescom meter reader tries to convey this to the villagers but the villagers refuse to pay the bill. This video is now going viral on social media.

Meanwhile, BJP IT Cell chief Amit Malaviya was quick to take this opportunity to mock the Congress over not forming the government yet. In a tweet, he said that villagers in Chitradurga refused to pay the electricity bill and exhorted others also not to pay. He said that the villagers told the bill collector to take bill payment from Congress as they promised to implement free electricity as soon as they came to power.

Malaviya further commented that if Congress doesn’t select a Chief Minister for Karnataka soon, there will be chaos all around the State.

In the May Assembly elections, Congress showered lots of freebies. Three of these main freebies would mean an additional burden of Rs 58,000 Cr on the State treasury. On the other hand, BJP made two main freebies which would have imposed a burden of Rs. 12,000 crore.