In a formal event, Karnataka chief minister Siddaramaiah launched the ‘Gruha Jyoti’ scheme on Saturday at Kalaburagi. The scheme that provides free electricity of up to 200 units to each household every month was implemented from August 1 and registered people who use less than 200 units of electricity will not have to pay any electricity bill in upcoming months.
In an X post, Karnataka CM Siddaramaiah said, “The Gruha Jyoti Yojana is launched in Kalaburagi, which will provide free electricity facility up to 200 units per month to all eligible household consumers of the country.” The national president of Congress, Mallikarjun Kharge also attended the event. Gruha Jyoti is Congress’ one of the five poll promises during the Karnataka assembly elections.

People can open the custom page for this scheme at Karnataka government’s seva sindhu portal and upload the scanned copies of Aadhar and customer ID as mentioned on the electricity bill to register for the scheme. The registrations can also be done through offline mode by walking into nearby ‘Bangalore One’, ‘Grama One’ and ‘Karnataka One’ centers. For all additional queries, people can call the 24/7 toll-free number 1912.
All the residential households of Karnataka whose monthly electricity usage is less than the average monthly consumption for the previous financial year + 10% are eligible to avail this scheme. It also applies for tenants in the state and even those who are living on rental houses can register for free electricity of 200 units. However, if the monthly electricity consumption is more than 200 units, the household is supposed to pay the bill for entire electricity consumed.
The Karnataka government has introduced a WhatsApp chatbot for people of the state to apply for the Gruha Lakshmi scheme without any outdoor hassles. This is the first time for the state government to experiment with the chatbot in a bid to reduce the footfalls at KarnatakaOne and BangaloreOne centres where the physical applications are received.
The government has provided WhatsApp number 8147500500 to which the chatbot is linked. Once the users send their details to the WhatsApp number, the chatbot will assist and guide the user to finish the application process. The chatbot then transfers the applications to BangaloreOne, KarnatakaOne and GramaOne offices where they will be examined. According to media reports, over seven lakh applications have been received from the WhatsApp chatbot services.
The applicants will have to provide their ration card, Below Poverty Line card (BPL), Above Poverty Line card (APL), or Antyodaya card along with their Aadhaar card. If someone does not have their bank account linked with Aadhaar, they can produce a passbook, the officials said.

Reports suggest that the government is planning to implement the chatbot services in Shakti Scheme too. The government has already asked female passengers to apply for the Shakti smart cards for free bus travel and it is likely to introduce the WhatsApp chatbot soon for this scheme as well.