Punjab chief minister Charanjit Singh Channi on Monday announced a slew of relief measures for citizens and state government employees close on the wheels of Diwali festivities.

He said power tariff for residential consumers in the state having upto 7 kilowatt load connection was being brought down by ?3 per unit across all the slabs. For state government employees, he announced an 11 per cent hike in dearness allowance and urged them to sit for talks and not agitate over any of their demands till the next assembly election.

He, however, refused to comment on the resignation by advocate general APS Deol. However, an officer in the CMO confirmed that resignation has been accepted and further course of action will be announced shortly.

Regarding the latest rate cut in power tariff that was effective from Monday, Channi said electricity was now the cheapest in Punjab, while adding that this would bring in an additional burden of Rs. 3,316 crore on the state exchequer and add up to ?14,000 crore when the total annual power subsidy bill is calculated which included subsidies on agri pumpsets. “ ?1.19 will be the new rate for small consumers,” he said.

“With today’s announcement, 95 per cent consumers have been covered touching 69 lakh consumers out of a total 72 lakh consumers with the Punjab State Power Corporation Limited,” Channi said at a press conference in Chandigarh.

He further said the government had decided to terminate its agreements with the GVK-owned power plant in Goindwal Sahib  that was providing electricity at ?6-7 per unit. “We will also rework power purchase agreements with two other privately owned thermal plants in Punjab by bringing in legislation in the upcoming session of the Assembly on Nov 8,” he said.