Chandigarh MP Manish Tewari seeks free power, water for urban poor
Manish Tewari says families earning below Rs 20,000 a month should get 300 units of electricity and 20,000 litres of water free.
Chandigarh MP Manish Tewari. (File Photo) Former Union Minister and Chandigarh MP Manish Tewari has urged Punjab Governor and UT Administrator Gulab Chand Kataria to introduce targeted welfare measures for the city’s urban poor and lower middle-class households, including 300 units of free electricity and 20,000 litres of free water a month for families earning below Rs 20,000.
In a four-page communication, Tewari highlighted the economic distress faced by vulnerable sections and called for policy intervention to ensure affordability and dignity in basic living. He said many families were struggling with rising food inflation, the escalating cost of living, and mounting financial pressures.
Referring to his visits across Chandigarh over the past 23 months, including urban villages and rehabilitation colonies, Tewari said he had witnessed first-hand the hardship faced by residents. “Many families are unable to pay lease rentals or licence fees for their small flats in relief and rehabilitation colonies, leading to cancellation notices and heavy interest demands from the Administration,” he said.
Arguing that Chandigarh has the fiscal space for such relief, Tewari cited budget figures from Demand No. 53 of the Ministry of Home Affairs in the Union Budget 2026-27. He noted that Chandigarh’s actual spend in 2024-25 was Rs 6,598.19 crores, with net expenditure of Rs 5,858.93 crores, including Rs 1,027.87 crores on Power and Renewable Energy.
For 2025-26, Rs 917.87 crores had been earmarked for Power and Renewable Energy, but revised estimates brought that figure down sharply to Rs 279.82 crores after power distribution in Chandigarh was privatised on February 1, 2025, with Chandigarh Power Distribution Limited (CPDL), a subsidiary of Eminent Electricity Distribution Limited (EEDL), taking over operations from the Engineering Department’s Electricity Wing.
For 2026-27, only Rs 171.86 crores has been estimated for Power and Renewable Energy. Tewari said this represented a reduction of Rs 856.01 crores compared to the actual spend in 2024-25. “That is the fiscal space the Chandigarh Administration must leverage to provide 300 units of free electricity to families with a monthly income below Rs 20,000,” he said.
He suggested the Administration seek Rs 856-1,000 crores through Supplementary Demands for Grants in September-October 2026 to reimburse CPDL for free power supplied from July 1, 2026. “This is the model already being followed in Delhi and Punjab, where governments reimburse distribution companies for free or subsidised power supplied to consumers,” he said.
Tewari also argued that Chandigarh, as a Union Territory funded directly by the Centre, was better placed than Punjab to provide such relief. He noted that Punjab, despite a projected debt liability of Rs 4.47 lakh crores by March 31, 2027, and a debt-to-GDP ratio of 46.65 per cent, continues to provide free power.
He further pointed to the Centre’s large welfare spending, citing schemes such as the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Yojana, which provides free food grains to 81.5 crore people at an annual cost of Rs 2.27 lakh crores; PM-KISAN, under which Rs 6,000 is given annually to 9.32 crore farmers at a cost of Rs 63,500 crores; and MGNREGA, with an annual budget of Rs 86,000 crores that provided employment to 7.88 crore people in 2024-25.
On free water, Tewari recalled that on March 11, 2024, Congress and AAP councillors passed a resolution in the Chandigarh Municipal Corporation’s General House to provide free water to residents. Though the resolution was initially rejected by then Administrator Banwari Lal Purohit, the General House reaffirmed it on July 10, 2024. Tewari said the resolution remains valid but has not been implemented.
He said estimates placed the cost of supplying free water to all Chandigarh residents at Rs 39.65 crores as of March 30, 2024. Restricting the benefit to households earning below Rs 20,000 a month would cost only about a quarter of that amount, which, he said, the Municipal Corporation could easily bear.
Tewari contrasted this with what he described as wasteful expenditure, citing Rs 166 crores spent on the failed 24×7 Mani Majra water supply project, now under CAG performance audit, and a further liability of around Rs 510 crores through a loan commitment to Agence Française de Développement for the pan-city 24×7 water project.
“Finding Rs 15-20 odd crores to provide free water to the poor and vulnerable sections is loose change and can be easily managed, provided the Administration refrains from exercising its misconceived veto,” he said.
“I do hope I will receive a direct response from you, as the matter concerns the invisible population of Chandigarh that keeps the wheels of the city turning by their sweat, toil and tears,” Tewari wrote.
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