PATNA, July 18 -- Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar on Thursday announced free electricity for all domestic consumers up to 125 units, continuing with slew of pro-people announcements months before the assembly elections in the state. "We have been providing electricity to everyone at affordable rates from the beginning. We have now decided that, starting August 1, 2025, and effective for the July bill, all domestic consumers in the state will not have to pay for electricity up to 125 units," Kumar posted on X in Hindi. In addition, the CM also announced that in next three years, the government planned to install solar roof tops for all domestic consumers. For the extremely poor covered under Kutir Jyoti Scheme, the government would bear the cost and for others, 'appropriate support' would be provided, he said. "This means domestic consumers will no longer have to bear any cost for electricity up to 125 units, and at the same time, it is estimated that within the next three years, up to 10,000 megawatts of solar energy will be available in the state," the chief minister said. Addressing reporters here on Thursday, deputy chief minister Samrat Chaudhary, who is also the state finance minister, said the state government had provided a big relief to power consumers by deciding to give 125 units of electricity free. "At least 16.7 million families who consume less than 125 units of electricity, their electricity bill will be zero," he told reporters. Bihar has 21.5 million consumers of which 16.7 million are domestic. The urban consumers were being charged subsidised rate of Rs.4.12 per unit for the first 100 units and Rs.5.52 per unit for the rest. For rural consumers there was a flat rate of Rs.2.45 per unit. For extremely poor consumers under Kutir Yojana, the first 50 units were charged at Rs.1.97 and remaining at Rs.2.45 per unit. CM Nitish Kumar, earlier in one of the biggest pre-election move, disbursed the first instalment of the hiked pension amount of Rs. 1,100 per month to the bank accounts of 1.11 crore beneficiaries, including senior citizens, widows and people with disabilities and announced to provide jobs to 10 million youths over next five years. On Wednesday, he also asked the education department to count the vacant posts in government schools to conduct the Teachers' Recruitment Test 4 (TRE-4), paving the way for another large scale teachers' appointments in state schools. For rural reach, the CM has launched a series of infrastructure initiatives under the Rural Works Department (RWD), with projects totalling Rs.21,406.36 crore aimed at transforming rural connectivity across Bihar. More importantly, honorarium of all employees associated with Jeevika has been doubled; 400,000 women employees of Bihar government will get housing facility near their office, the government will give Rs.2 lakh each to 94 lakh poor families and the monthly allowance of representatives of three-tier Panchayati Raj system has been increased by one and a half times....