Patna, Oct. 25: Bihar State Power (Holding) Company Ltd (BSPHCL) has decided to provide free electricity to Chhath puja committees on Wednesday and Thursday.

The decision is part of the company’s corporate social responsibility and also to avoid any untoward incidents during Chhath.

BSPHCL chairman-cum-managing director Pratyaya Amrit said: “We have decided to give free electricity to Chhath puja committees for their temporary connections.”

The puja committees would have to submit an application giving details of place and quantum of load for which they want power connection on these two days to their respective executive engineers. However, they would not have to deposit the fee while submitting the application.

“Since the government is taking extra care this year after the Dussehra stampede, we have also decided to help the puja committees in getting easy power connections so that they do not resort to illegal hooking leading to mishaps,” a BSPHCL source said.

A source in the company said they have made elaborate arrangements to ensure smooth power supply during Chhath. To ensure round the clock maintenance services, Patna Electric Supply Undertaking has set up 14 control rooms with one each in all its 11 divisions and one each at Pesu headquarters and Pesu east and west circles office to redress complaints. People can call on 2280014/2280024 on Wednesday and Thursday.

Amrit has thought of deploying an engineer with cellphones at each ghat to keep a tab on rumours of wire snapping.