"The department has got a list of these people and their number is 24,036.
"These people had resisted payment of their inflated bills till December 2013 and the chief minister, in keeping with his promise to provide relief to the people who had agitated against high electricity tariffs and inflated bills, decided to provide them 50% relief on outstanding arrears.
"The calculations by concerned departments show that the cost of providing this relief will be Rs six crore.
"During this period, a total of 2508 electricity meters were also disconnected by the concerned authorities for non-payment of inflated and wrong bills.
"The government has decided to provide relief to those people also so that they do not suffer for wrong decisions of the previous government.
"The government has also decided to consider the closure of theft cases registered against some consumers during the previous government's regime", the press release said.
