File photo of Piyush Goyal

NEW DELHI: With the Modi government's energy plan for common people yielding rich electoral dividends for BJP in recent assembly elections, especially in UP, states are realising the merit in providing 24x7 power at affordable rates and shedding political inhibitions to walk the Centre's talk.

The states also came on board to make consumers' lives easier and curb corruption by putting in place online payment mechanisms for clearing power bills, including Aadhaar-enabled system as well as making e-payment mandatory for discom/utility salaries, contractors and vendors.

The change became evident at the conclusion of the two-day conference of state energy ministers on Thursday when power minister Piyush Goyal found himself with Bihar and Tripura - both ruled by parties opposed to BJP - on the same page over lighting up the entire country by December 2018.

Indeed, sources said, Bihar went a step further in saying it would endeavour to take electricity to every state household much before the deadline. Tripura too assured it would work hard towards meeting the deadline. The two states and UP have been identified among the laggards in electrification.

As reported by TOI on March 11, speedy electrification of villages and distribution of free LPG connections to poor households in UP had brought about immediate and tangible improvement in the daily lives of beneficiaries. This established a connect with people about the PM's plank of 'development politics' ahead of the state polls.

But the conference dialogue, conducted mostly behind closed doors, was not a one-way street. Positive experiences were shared and found a ready acceptance for emulation by other states. For example, Bihar's simplification of power bills, where it spells out how much subsidy the government is giving, provided a lead for simplification and reduction of tariff slabs.

States currently have multiple slabs - sometimes stretching to 150 - for various consumer categories which leads to uneven sharing of risk among stakeholders - discoms or commercial consumers. A simplified slab will bring in transparency and curb camouflaging of discom inefficiencies. In other words, consumers will know what is their billing plan, somewhat akin to mobile telephony, and whether there are "hidden" costs in their bills.

