The Punjab farmer who had been enjoying free power for nearly the past decade will now have to do without the facility.

The Punjab cabinet on Friday decided to charge Rs50 per horse power on tubewells used for irrigation. But at the same time the cabinet agreed that the government would compensate farmers for this financial burden.

“It is just rationalisation of the subsidy given to them,” chief minister Parkash Singh Badal said. The state government annually bears the burden of Rs2,500 crore for supplying free power to over 11 lakh tubewells in Punjab.

It was in 2002 that the Akali government headed by Badal had initiated the populist scheme to woo farmers.

The subsequent Congress government headed by Amarinder Singh disbanded it for some time, but reintroduced it when the assembly elections neared in 2006.

According to an official spokesperson, the power tariff on tubewells would be adjusted in the minimum support price and bonus of farmers. The compensation amount will be given at the end of the wheat and paddy harvest seasons.