Govt agencies sit on Rs 457cr energy bills

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Bhubaneswar: Several government agencies including civic bodies across the state are the biggest electricity bill defaulters with a whopping Rs 457 crore bill outstanding against them over years.
According to Energy department sources, Housing and Urban Development department is yet to clear Rs 40.92 crore while the School and Mass Education department has a due of Rs 40.11 crore. Similarly, the Panchayati Raj department has a pending bill of Rs 36.25 crore, Planning & Convergence department Rs 30.44 crore, Rural Water Supply and Sanitation Organisation Rs 25.05 crore and Water Resources department Rs 21.51 crore.
“Besides, Health and Family Welfare department has Rs 19.76 crore pending towards the power bill while the housing wing of H&UD department has Rs 17.74 crore outstanding energy bills.
The Public Health Engineering Organisation (PHEO) has a due of Rs 14.89 crore, ST and SC Development department Rs 8.04 crore, Revenue and Disaster Management Department Rs 6.69 crore, Works department has Rs 4.80 crore, Rural Development department Rs 4.56 crore, Higher Education department Rs 3.38 crore, Forest and Environment department Rs 2.93 crore and Law department has Rs 2.64 crore unpaid power bills,” said a senior Energy department official.
Interestingly, the Energy department has Rs 2.71 crore outstanding towards electricity bill, he added. Moreover, several civic bodies across the state have Rs 163.24 crore pending electricity bills. Likewise, Handlooms, Handicrafts and Textiles department has a due of Rs 2.93 crore, Cooperation department Rs 1.98 crore and Fisheries & Animal Resources Development department Rs 1.92 crore dues so far.
While the Agriculture department owes Rs 1.79 crore to the electricity distribution companies like Nesco, Wesco, Southco and Cesu, the Department of Commerce and Transport has Rs 68 lakh pending towards power bill. Likewise, the Industries department is yet to clear Rs 43 lakh bill, Finance department Rs 42 lakh, Tourism department Rs 37 lakh, Information and Public Relations department Rs 32 lakh, Women and Child Development department Rs 31 lakh, Labour & ESI department Rs 19 lakh and Excise department Rs 17 lakh. Food Supplies & Consumer Welfare and Sports & Youth Affairs department has Rs 12 lakh pending electricity dues each. As far as other departments are concerned, while the Directorate of Technical Education & Training has Rs 9 lakh outstanding power bill, Science and Technology has Rs 7 lakh and Steel and Mines Rs 5 lakh.
Despite several reminders and circulars, the officials concerned are not paying any heed to clear the pending power bills.
“A special budgetary allocation will be made in the upcoming session to clear the energy bills. Like most other bills, timely payment of electricity bills will be made mandatory. If the electricity bills are not settled monthly, the Drawing and Disbursing Officers’ (DDO’s) salary will be withheld,” the officer said, adding that a circular in this regard would be sent to the treasuries.
“In the next Budget, we will recommend to the state government to stop allocating funds to the defaulting departments,” the officer added.