Chandigarh, July 17 -- Occupants of government houses in Chandigarh are seeing red over the solar electrification project as they are now being told to pay solar-user charges. Rooftop solar plants were installed over 5,000 out of the total 6,200 government houses in the city in February this year, as part of the PM Surya Ghar Muft Bijli Yojana. The houses are located across Sectors 7, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 27, and 39. The charges, collected by Chandigarh Power Distribution Limited (CPDL) on behalf of the Chandigarh Renewable Energy and Science & Technology Promotion Society (CREST), are reflected as additional fees in the monthly power bills. For houses with a 6-kilowatt solar plant, occupants are paying Rs.3,000 every two months-calculated at Rs.250 per kilowatt per month. "The charge is collected on behalf of CREST and is not retained by CPDL," a senior CPDL official clarified, adding, "The fee applies only to occupants of these government houses." Saurabh Kumar, secretary, Science & Technology & Renewable Energy, UT, said, "The decision to levy solar-user charges was taken back in 2019. However, our department has initiated a proposal for waiver of these charges, which is currently under active consideration." Rakesh Kumar, general secretary of the coordination committee of government and MC employees and workers, UT, said, "The installation was done without our consent, and now they are forcing us to pay. We plan to hold a protest soon." Another government employee, SP Sharma, a resident of Sector 22, said, "We barely consume that much electricity. My last bill was Rs.3,000, of which Rs.1,500 was just solar usage charge. We demand a complete rollback." Under the PM Surya Ghar Muft Bijli Yojana, the UT administration covered the initial costs of the solar plants. Each system has a lifespan of 25 years and generates around 300 units of electricity per month. The project also offered a capital subsidy of up to Rs.78,000 for installations up to 3 kWp. Out of 6,200 government houses, the CREST was unable to install solar power plants on 818 houses due to obstructions caused by trees. Additionally, according to CREST, 550 government houses could not be equipped with solar panels due to issues such as inadequate sanctioned electricity load or non-allotment. A rooftop solar plant requires a minimum sanctioned load of two kilowatts for installation. Currently, Chandigarh has an installed rooftop solar capacity of 69 MWp....