Bathinda Local Bodies Department owes powercom Rs 27 crore

Bathinda, November 28

The Local Bodies Department has outstanding electricity bills running into crores of rupees. The data procured by The Tribune from the Bathinda range PSPCL office revealed that the department has outstanding electricity bills to the tune of Rs 27.4 crore.

Senior PSPCL officials said several notices were served to “defaulters”. Now, as per the directions of the higher authorities, the power com has started installing prepaid smart electricity meters at government offices so that advance payments can be made.

Sources in the department said, “Among all major defaulters who have not paid their pending bills, the Local Bodies Department has the maximum amount of outstanding bills. Notices were served to the department on numerous occasions, but payment of pending bills were made on partly basis. Since, notices are hardly serving any purpose now, we have decided to disconnect meters.”

Punnerdeep Singh Brar, Chief Engineer, PSPCL Bathinda, said, “Despite repeated notices, no payments were made by many government departments. Now, we have decided to disconnect electricity connections of non-essential units of these departments.”

Pallavi Choudhary, Municipal Commissioner, avoided responding to the queries regarding the non-payment of outstanding electricity bills and said, “I will only be able to comment on the matter after checking official records in my office tomorrow.”