The Himachal Pradesh government, a couple of months ago, introduced a scheme, under the ‘Atal Bijli Bachat Yojana’, whereby it would distribute about 64 lakh Compact Fluorescent Lamps (CFL) in exchange of incandescent lamps. The scheme, I believe is on a verge of becoming a big scam and the concerned authorities need to look into it seriously.

First, let’s see what the scheme is. The scheme has a provision of free distribution of 64 lakh CFLs to 16 lakh domestic consumers of the state in replacement of conventional incandescent lamps. The government would be spending about Rs 80 crore on the scheme.  The consumer would be provided four CFLs, two 15 watt and two 20 watt free of cost as a replacement of two 60 watt and two 100 watt incandescent lamps.

Now where’s the scam? The scam seems to be not in the initiative or the intent but at the consumer’s end, who are not exchanging old incandescent lamps for new CFLs; instead are buying new incandescent lamps from the market and getting them exchanged for CFLs.

Now, the question is, which company is providing the CFLs to the government? If somebody knows, please update us. Now what is the company doing with the incandescent bulbs, which are exactly new? This seems to be a nexus between the Electrical appliances manufacturers, the government, and the company providing the CFLs.

While the CFLs may actually reduce the energy bills of consumers, it has put a burden of Rs 80 crore on the state excequer, and the only one benefiting from the scheme is the company providing the CFLs?

If you have more to tell on the topic, please update.