Hyderabad: The Telangana government on Friday, February 16, issued directives to eligible residents of the state on necessary documents required to avail of the Gruha Jyothi scheme.
The government also made the Aadhaar number mandatory for beneficiaries to avail of the scheme.
“The use of Aadhaar as an identity document for the delivery of services or benefits or subsidies simplifies the government delivery processes, brings in transparency and efficiency, and enables beneficiaries to get their entitlements directly in a convenient and seamless manner by obviating the need to produce multiple documents to prove one’s identity,” the government said.
For residents with no Aadhaar card
For aspirants who have not enrolled for the Aadhaar card, the state government said that the beneficiaries shall be required to make an application for Aadhaar enrolment before registering for the scheme.
The state government said that individuals who enrolled for Aadhaar and are in waiting process can avail the benefits under the scheme subject to the production of the following documents namely:
(a) if he/she has enrolled, his/her Aadhaar Enrolment Identification Slip and any
(b) any one of the following documents, namely.
(i) Bank or Post office passbook with photo; or
(ii) Permanent Account Number (PAN) Card; or
(iii) Passport; or
(iv) Ration Card; or
(v) Voter Identity Card; or
(vi) MGNREGA card,
(vii) Kisan Photo passbook,
(viii) Driving license issued by the Licensing Authority under the Motor Vehicles Act, 1988 (S9 of 19BB); or
(ix) certificate of identity having photo of such person issued by a gazetted officer or a tehsildar on an official letterhead; or
(x) any other document as specified by the Energy department provided further that the above documents may be checked by an officer specifically designated by the department for that purpose.
In case of Aadhaar authentication failure
In all cases, where Aadhaar authentication fails due to poor biometrics of the beneficiaries or due to any other reason, the following remedial mechanisms shall be adopted, namely:-
(a) in case of poor fingerprint quality, iris scan or face authentication facility shall be adopted for authentication, thereby the department through its implementing agency shall make provisions for iris scanners or face authentication along with finger-print authentication for delivery of benefits in seamless manner;
(b) in case the biometric authentication through fingerprints or iris scan or face authentication is not successful, wherever feasible and admissible authentication by Aadhaar one Time password or Time based one Time Password with limited time validity, as the case may be, shall be offered, the state government said.
Congress’ poll promise
Under the scheme, the state government will provide free electricity to eligible households in Telangana that consume up to 200 units of electricity per month are eligible to receive free electricity.
The scheme is expected to benefit over 83 lakh households in Telangana and will reduce the financial burden on low-income households.
The scheme was announced by the Congress party during the manifesto and was launched after they won the state elections.
The eligibility criteria for the scheme include being a permanent resident of Telangana, having a residential/domestic electricity connection in your name, and consuming less than 200 units of electricity per month.
