Vidyut Sakhis collect 657cr in UP power bill arrears in 90 days

Lucknow: Over 15,000 Vidyut Sakhis in Uttar Pradesh collected around Rs 657 crore as electricity bill arrears under the One Time Settlement (OTS) scheme of the UP Power Corporation Limited (UPCL) in three months between Dec 2025 and Feb 2026. The exercise fetched the women a handsome commission of around Rs 8 crore.Vidyut Sakhis in UP earn commission for doorstep electricity bill collection, typically receiving Rs 20 per transaction for bills up to Rs 1,999 and 1% for higher amounts in rural areas. In urban areas, they receive Rs 12 per bill up to Rs 3,000 and 0.4% for higher amounts.As many as 70 Vidyut Sakhis alone collected Rs 70 crore. The top performers included Soni Dwivedi from Amethi who collected Rs 3.1 crore, Mehar Jahan from Rampur who collected Rs 2.7 crore and Rajshree Shukla from Barabanki with Rs 2.3 crore.According to official data, Rs 349 crore was collected in December 2025, Rs 188 crore in January 2026, and Rs 120 crore in February 2026. Nearly 17.75 lakh electricity bills were settled under the scheme. At the district level, Saharanpur, Sultanpur, Meerut and Amethi emerged as top performers.Officials said the programme, being implemented through a convergence between UPPCL and the Uttar Pradesh State Rural Livelihood Mission, emerged as a powerful and inspiring example of women-led transformation in rural areas of the state.Under the programme, trained women known as Vidyut Sakhis facilitate doorstep bill collection and provide basic electricity-related services to consumers, improving transparency, efficiency and accountability in the power distribution network.