By IANS,
Shimla : The Himachal Pradesh government Tuesday announced it would give away free of cost four CFL bulbs to every household in the hill state.
Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal made the announcement on the Himachal Day celebrations at Kanjian village of the Hamirpur district, some 160 km from here.
The plan, named after former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, is called Atal Bijli Bachat Yojna.
“The Atal Bijli Bachat Yojna will provide four CFL bulbs free of cost to every household for which a budgetary provision of Rs.800 million ($20 million) has been made,” said Dhumal.
“All state government offices in the state will replace old electric equipment with power efficient equipment by Dec 25 (2008), the birthday of Vajpayee,” he added.
Himachal Pradesh, which has surplus power, has achieved complete electrification around two decades ago.
The state has a quarter of the entire country’s hydel power potential. So far, only around a quarter of this has been tapped.