Bengaluru: If you are a beneficiary of the State government’s ‘Gruha Jyothi’ free electricity scheme, expect a knock on your door from July 1. In a statewide exercise aimed at weeding out ineligible beneficiaries and plugging misuse of the government’s flagship guarantee scheme, the Energy Department will launch a door-to-door verification drive across the jurisdictions of all five Electricity Supply Companies (ESCOMs) in Karnataka.The verification drive comes amid growing concerns over misuse of the scheme, with authorities detecting cases in which consumers allegedly availed themselves of the benefit using incorrect information, continued claiming free electricity despite changes in occupancy, or failed to update their tenancy details after shifting houses. In addition, the Karnataka Guarantee Implementation Committee flagged the alleged misuse of the scheme by beneficiaries who are not registered voters in Karnataka. Following these findings, the government has decided to physically verify every beneficiary to ensure that only eligible households continue to receive the subsidy.As part of the exercise, meter readers and ESCOM officials will visit beneficiaries’ residences to verify consumer details, update records, and complete the verification process using a mobile application along with a signed declaration form from the beneficiary. Consumers have been asked to keep the following documents ready–an Aadhaar card (for identity verification), a passport-size photograph, voter ID card, PAN card, ration card, caste certificate, PAN number if the beneficiaries are tax payers, professional details and tenancy or rental agreement, wherever applicable.Officials clarified that the verification can only be completed through a physical visit by authorised ESCOM personnel and urged beneficiaries to cooperate with the visiting staff to ensure a smooth and timely completion of the exercise.The drive will be carried out simultaneously across the jurisdictions of BESCOM (Bengaluru), MESCOM (Mangaluru), HESCOM (Hubballi), GESCOM (Kalaburagi), and CESC (Mysuru). It is expected to help the government identify genuine beneficiaries while preventing subsidy leakages under the Gruha Jyothi scheme, which was launched in July 2023 to provide up to 200 units of free electricity to eligible domestic consumers.
