In what the critics called an effort to comeback to power in the upcoming municipal elections in the State besides generating goodwill for the next year’s Assembly elections, Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Monday walked in the footsteps of her Delhi counterpart Arvind Kejriwal by announcing free power for an earmarked section of the society among other populist schemes.
Announcing the “conditional” power scheme called ‘Hasir Alo’ (smiling light) State Finance Minister Amit Mitra said that the households with a quarterly consumption of up to 75 units would get electricity free of cost. The scheme is expected to benefit 35 lakh poor households Mitra said adding Rs 200 crore have been allocated for the purpose.
