Patna: Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar Tuesday inaugurated and laid foundation of various schemes of Energy department worth over Rs 1000 crore.
The chief minister inaugurated schemes worth Rs 616.11 crore while work commenced for schemes worth Rs 390.84 crore at a function organised by the Energy department.
Nitish Kumar inaugurated and laid foundation of various schemes Speaking at the function Kumar announced that power consumers of Bihar will be provided 'smart pre-paid electricity meters' by August 15, 2020."The decision to install smart pre-paid electricity meters has already been approved by the state cabinet. All the three agencies have been involved in the process to complete installation of smart pre-paid meters in the state so that the target could be completed by August 15, 2020," he said.Talking about the benefits of pre-paid meters, Kumar said that installation of prepaid meters will help eliminate problems in meter reading."People will recharge their pre-paid meters according to their power consumption," he added.In order to lessen the burden on power consumers, the state government is giving Rs 5,000 crore as subsidy to them.Stating that giving free electricity is not appropriate, Kumar asserted that "Those who talk about giving free electricity is nothing but a publicity stunt ... There is a need to ponder over it in a more practical way."The state government is committed for the development of agriculture sector, he said while asking the energy department officials to ensure that agriculture feeder reaches to every village for irrigation the farm."It was announced on November 1, 2018 that agriculture feeders and all dilapidated conductors will be replaced by December 2019. There is a need to do it in a mission mode ... A target has been fixed to install 1312 agriculture feeders," Kumar said while asking energy departments Principal Secretary Pratyaya Amrit to make assessment of all the 1312 feeders and if needed, increase the number of feeders.The CM stressed on the need for setting up hydel and solar power plants and asked people to go for fish farming in a pond and generate power by installing solar plate over the pond.He asked officials to install solar plant on roof tops of the government offices as it would not only help them meet their energy requirements but the people would also be motivated to use solar energy.Deputy CM Sushil Kumar Modi, Energy Minister Bijendra Prasad Yadav also addressed on the occasion.
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With inputs from PTI
