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.
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."
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