DHBVN drive on to recover power bills amounting to Rs 459 cr
Faridabad, October 2
Outstanding power bills in the Faridabad circle have mounted to a whopping Rs 459 crore, forcing the DHBVN to speed up its recovery drive. At present, the circle has around 6.5 lakh connections in the domestic and non-domestic sectors.
As the domestic/private sector has the major share of defaulting amount of Rs 445.61 crore, a majority of such connections belong to urban areas of the circle. As many as 81,990 domestic consumers owe Rs 215.18 crore, whereas consumers in rural areas of the district owe Rs 54.42 crore until the end of August. The number of defaulting consumers in rural areas is 23,917, as per the DHBVN office.
A majority of domestic defaulters are still enjoying power supply, despite the fact that they owe Rs 118.20 crore — mainly due to pending legal cases. Litigation, untraced connections and change of address have further compounded the problem, said an official.
Supply to defaulting government departments could not be disconnected in view of urgency or facilitation of basic amenities and public services.
The number of defaulting government connections has declined to 814 and they owe Rs 13.4 crore. The defaulting amount of various government departments in the corresponding period over the past few years has been three or four times.
The MC remains the top defaulter among government departments, with a pending amount of Rs 6.29 crore, according to sources.
Joginder Hooda, Superintending Engineer, DHBVN, said a regular drive was on to recover the pending bills in the circle.
