Allaying fears of people residing in rented accommodation about the free power scheme,KarnatakaCMSiddaramaiahand energy ministerKJ Georgeon Tuesday confirmed that tenants, too, would get the benefit of the scheme if they were consuming less than 200 units of power in a month.
Karnataka witnessed its steepest hike in power tariffs in mid-May when the Karnataka Electricity Regulatory Commission (KERC) ordered a 70-paise hike per unit. Even though the previous BJP government constantly rejectedproposals to increase the power tariff, theKERCuploaded its revised orders on its website on May 12, a day before the results of the state assembly were announced.
KERC revised the fixedcharges tariff and merged the urban and rural slabs into one category. While KERC had allowed revisions in tariffs between a minimum of 20 paise and a maximum of 48 paise in the past decade, this was the first time that KERC allowed such a steep hike.