Bihar: Special camps every month to address power bill complaints of consumers

The Bihar government will organise camps at the block level across the state every second Saturday of the month to resolve the complaints related to electricity bills, said state’s energy minister Bijendra Prasad Yadav in the legislative assembly, while giving the government reply on the budgetary demand of the department. The announcement is significant as chief minister Nitish Kumar had also received several complaints related to electricity bills at his weekly interaction with people at his residence as well as during his Samadhan Yatra earlier this year and had directed the officials to organise special camps to address them and also create awareness about the smart pre-paid meters that have been and are being installed widely in the state. The minister said the power tariff in Bihar was lower than many states despite the fact that it was purchasing it at the highest rate, thanks to the subsidy from the state government. The minister said that when the country could have “one nation-one tax” policy, why can’t it have “one nation-one energy tariff”, which would help poor states like Bihar by reducing cost on purchasing electricity.