UHBVN receives Rs 1.4-cr dues from candidates

Tribune News Service

Ravinder Saini

Jhajjar, October 22

The upcoming elections to the Panchayati Raj Institutions (PRIs) have turned out to be a blessing for the local office of the Uttar Haryana Bijli Vitran Nigam (UHBVN) as it has received a pending amount of electricity bills to the tune of Rs 1.4 crore from the candidates trying their luck in the fray.

Sources said the bills for the period ranging from two months to one year had remmained unpaid despite repeated warnings to the defaulters concerned.

Notices served

}Multiple notices had been served on defaulters, who failed to deposit the electricity bills. Before snapping the connection, officials contacted the defaulters, asking them to clear their pending dues. —Geetu Ram Tanwar, Superintending engineer

Notably, obtaining the no dues certificate from the UHBVN is a mandatory condition for contesting the PRIs elections.

The zila parishad and panchayat samiti elections are scheduled to be held on October 30, while that for the gram panchayat will be held on November 2.

“Pending dues to the tune of Rs 52 lakh have been received from the residents of villages under Jhajjar division, Rs 48 lakh have been recovered in Bahadurgarh and Rs 40 lakh in Beri division,” an official of the UHBVN said. More than 60 per cent candidates contesting the elections had cleared their dues so far, he added.

Geetu Ram Tanwar, Superintending Engineer, said they were confident of recovering another Rs 1 crore towards outstanding dues from the candidates.

“Multiple notices had been served on defaulters, who failed to deposit their electricity bills. Before snapping the connection, officials contacted the defaulters asking them to pay the pending dues,” said the SE.

A candidate said since he had been canvassing for the elections for long, he had no other option but to pay the electricity dues for jumping into the fray. “Similar is the situation with many more candidates,” he added.

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