Taking its initiative to withdraw subsidies being enjoyed by the well-off sections of society a step forward, the Himachal Pradesh Government on Thursday decided to do away with the free drinking water facility in rural areas and free travel facility for all police personnel.
The Cabinet decided to fix Rs 100 monthly charges for people residing in rural areas with domestic connection, who were getting free water supply till now. However, people with less than Rs 50,000 annual income, including widows, destitute, ekal nari, handicapped and other weaker sections, will not be charged anything for water which will be supplied free.
Last month, the cash-strapped Himachal Government had done away with free power subsidy for all income tax payers. Faced with acute fund crunch, the Sukhu-led Congress regime is looking at other areas to withdraw subsidies for the affluent section of society.
It was in May, 2022, that the previous BJP regime had waived off water charges in all rural areas of Himachal which adversely impacted the financial health of the Jal Shakti Department. “This has resulted in huge losses to the Jal Shakti Department which has to pay Rs 800 crore annually to the power department alone for electricity supply for running its schemes,” said an official. There are about 17 lakh water connections in Himachal.
In urban areas, water bills are being issued by urban local bodies but the big commercial establishments like hotels, restaurants, educational institutions and show rooms that have come up in large number all along the highways in rural areas were getting free water supply. Henceforth, water meters will be installed in all these commercial establishments located in rural areas and they will be billed for the amount of water they consume as per the meter reading on commercial rates.
The Cabinet also decided to do away with free travel facility in government buses for police personnel as it was being misused. Henceforth, police personnel while on official duty will be given travel reimbursement to prevent misuse of free travel facility by the cops.
Presently, deduction of Rs 110 per month is made from the salary of police personnel for the free travel facility, whether on official or private travel. The state government has to provide Rs 700 crore grant-in-aid annually to Himachal Road Transport Corporation (HRTC) as it is incurring huge losses due to subsidised travel facility for women, students, media personnel and other categories, which could also be reviewed.