All Bihar households to get electricity by 2018-end: Nitish Kumar

All households in Bihar would be provided electricity in the next two years, Chief Minister Nitish Kumar announced here on Tuesday.

Patna, Nov 15: All households in Bihar would be provided electricity in the next two years, Chief Minister Nitish Kumar announced here on Tuesday.

"Our objective is to connect every households with electricity in the state by the end of 2018," he said after launching 'Har Ghar Bijli Connection' scheme in the state.

However, he said people will have to pay for electricity as his government never promised to provide electricity free of cost.

"We have never promised to provide free of cost electricity. People have to pay for the electricity consumed by them. It is not free at all," he clarified.

Nitish Kumar said state government has been working to fulfil its promise to provide electricity connection to every household with financial assistance from the Asian Development Bank.

He said a survey conducted by the state government has found that over 40 lakh households in the state, that are above poverty line (APL), do not have electricity connections.

Claiming that the overall electricity situation has improved in the state, the Chief Minister said the per capita consumption of electricity in Bihar has gone up to 258 units from merely 70 units in 2005 and the demand of electricity has reached 3,769 MW from 700 MW in 2005.

In the run up to 2015 Bihar Assembly polls, Nitish Kumar had promised to provide electricity to every household in the state if the Grand Alliance of the Janata Dal-United (JD-U), Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) and the Congress came to power.

IANS