Sandeep Poundrik on Thursday. Picture by Ashok Sinha

The festival of lights is over but Chhath is poised to be equally bright and dazzling.

Bihar State Power (Holding) Company Limited (BSPHCL) has decided to provide free electricity to Chhath puja samitis on Friday and Saturday across the state as part of its corporate social responsibility programme.

“Since government departments and agencies make the preparations with the support of puja samitis and residents, the power company decided to provide free electricity to them,” said BSPHCL chairman-cum-managing director and energy department secretary Sandeep Poundrik.

Poundrik, however, made it clear that all the puja samitis would have to submit an application to their respective executive engineers, furnishing details of place and quantum of load they want along with the fee.

Each puja samiti has to deposit Rs 1,200 to Rs 1,300 per kilowatt per day, said sources.

For round-the-clock maintenance services in shortest possible time, Patna Electric Supply Undertaking (Pesu) has set up 13 control rooms, one each in its 10 divisions and one each at the Pesu headquarters and its east and west circle offices, to redress people’s complaints, said Pesu deputy general manager H.R. Pandey.

Complaints can be lodged round-the-clock on 0612-2285032/2280014/2280024 on November 8 and 9.