Hundreds of consumers in four tribal dominated districts in Odisha are annoyed because of the shortage of supply in the LED bulbs that were to be provided by the government under the UJALA scheme.
The Unnat Jeevan by Affordable LEDs and Appliances for All or UJALA scheme is the central government’s pan-India programme – launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in 2015.
As per a report by The New Indian Express, consumers have said that 70,000 LED bulbs, tube lights, and energy efficient fans have been damaged and they are yet to be replaced under the scheme by the authorised agency.
Affected consumers have proclaimed that the company had emphasised on distributing the 9-watt LED bulbs rather than other items like tube lights and energy efficient fans.
There is a clause of three years warranty on every product and the authorised distributing agencies are yet to replace the damaged products. The consumers have also complained about how the products were sold in an unsystematic manner and without authentic bills and the agencies stopped their services as the agreement term was over.
The motive was to reduce energy consumption in lighting which helps power distribution companies to manage peak demand. The programme is being executed by the Energy Efficiency Services Ltd (EESL), a joint venture of PSUs under the Power Ministry, in collaboration with various power distribution companies across the country.
Susil Kumar, in charge of EESL-Odisha said in the report, “Due to huge demand across the country, supply to the state has been reduced. New tender will be floated soon to engage distribution agencies in Koraput district to regularise customer service. However, no agency is interested to participate in the tender for Maoist-prone Malkangiri.”
