Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Sunday announced to end of a 75 year old VIP culture and said that all public servants in the state will have to pay for their electricity consumption beginning July.
His announcement came on the same day the Assam Secretariat became the country’s first green state government headquarters with the inauguration of 2.5 Megawatt solar power project on its campus.
Sarma said, “The Chief Secretary of Assam and himself would be first people to start paying their own electricity bills, starting July 1 to set an example.”
“We are ending the VIP culture rule of paying electricity bills for government officials using taxpayer money. Myself and the Chief Secretary will set an example and start paying our power bills from July 1 onwards. Beginning in July 2024, all public servants will have to pay for their electricity consumption,” CM Sarma said in a video message on X.
https://x.com/himantabiswa/status/1802357777274376340
“We usually find that the electricity bills of the residences of our ministers and senior government officers or the residences of the secretariat were being paid by the government for so long. This is a legacy of 75 years, not a new system,” the Assam Chief Minister said.
“No government, no chief minister, no chief secretary, the electricity bill used in everyone’s house was being paid by the state government so far from the budget. We have decided, with effect from July 1, be it the chief minister, ministers, senior officers, we will pay our electricity bills, so that they do not have to increase the electricity charges in lieu of the losses that the electricity board incurs due to our non-payment,” he added during an event.
The review meeting was attended by Chief Ministers of Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur and Tripura.
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