A new initiative jointly undertaken by the National Rural Livelihoods Mission (NRLM) and the Uttar Pradesh Power Corporation Limited proposes to augment the incomes of rural women associated with self-help groups and help the power department recover arrears worth crores of rupees.

The women from the self-help groups, commonly known as didis, will go door-to-door in the villages and collect electricity dues from the consumers. Besides providing employment to members of the self help groups, the move also helps the villagers who will now not have to line up in long queues for depositing their bills at the sub-centres. The arrears received shall substantially increase the revenue of Uttar Pradesh Power Corporation Limited, it is expected. 

“At least 10 women have been selected in every block for the process. On the recovery of electricity bills up to two thousand rupees and three thousand rupees, the didis will get a commission of 20 rupees and 30 rupees, respectively. The commission will increase depending on the bill amount,” Shiv Bihari, the district mission manager associated with the state livelihood mission at Kannauj in Uttar Pradesh, told Gaon Connection. The training of the women associated with the self-help groups would start soon, he added. 

“There will be a nodal agency at the district level with a livelihood women’s committee. The bill recovery commissions will be directed to the group’s account. The group in charge will then disburse the commission to fellow women members,” explained Bihari.

Both old arrears and the new bill payments will be collected by the women who will be trained by the power corporation. “The registration has been done for the recovery of the electricity bills and now the process for approval is ongoing on the department portal. For this, the women of the group will get a thermal printer connected with their mobile phones and will be provided a commission on each bill,” Shadab Ahmad, the executive engineer of UP Power Corporation Limited, Kannauj, informed Gaon Connection. If the women went door to door in their villages, recovering payments,  it was bound to increase revenue for the department, he added. 

The move hopes to benefit both the power department and the consumers in the rural areas. “The process will be implemented throughout the state. As soon as the registration process is completed in a district, the work of recovery will begin. So far, registration has been done at Baghpat, Kannauj and Lucknow,” RC Asgar, senior mission manager, Uttar Pradesh told Gaon Connection.