Patna: The Centre, in a bid to promote use of LED bulbs among the rural populace in Bihar, has decided to provide this low-energy consuming light source for Rs 60 only in place of Rs 70 under its Ujala Scheme.

Post offices have been entrusted with this task. Postmaster general Anil Kumar said: "The delivery of these low-cost LED bulbs is being made in 8,569 villages spread across 13 districts of Bihar."

These villages are located in Banka, Jamui, Begusarai, Khagaria, Araria, Katihar, Purnea, Nawada, Sheikhpura, Aurangabad, Gaya, Sitamarhi and Muzaffarpur districts. A total of 300 sub-post offices, which work at the block level and around 1,800 branch post offices, which work at the panchayat level, would render their services for delivering the bulbs among the target group.

The identification of the districts has been done by the Centre and across the country, 175 districts have been identified for this purpose out of which 13 are in Bihar, said the postmaster general.

Residents would have to provide copies of one ID proof and one residence proof for purchasing the LED bulbs under this special scheme which was rolled out on July 18 and would continue till August 15.

The postmaster general said the postal staff will play a proactive role for the success of this scheme and they would reach out to the target group sharing details about the benefit of the scheme and convince them to purchase LED bulbs.

In addition to the special drive launched by the postal department, the Energy Efficiency Services Limited (EESL), which is an energy service company, the central government, too, has been undertaking the work related to delivery of low-cost LED bulbs to residents in Bihar.

ESSL, said one of its officials, is providing its services since 2016 through its 127 counters and some branches of post offices numbering 350 for providing 9W LED bulbs for Rs 70. The ESSL official said so far around 1.82 crore LED bulbs have been purchased by residents so far and private players have sold around 2.25 crore LED bulbs. "The state is saving around Rs 947 crore every year due to wide-scale use of these bulbs and it has also led to reduction of 19.17 lakh tonnes of carbon emission every year," added the ESSL official.