Punjab Govt depts bleed PSPCL, owe crores in power arrears

Tribune News Service

Shivani Bhakoo

Ludhiana, June 18

City residents have been regularly complaining about unscheduled power outages, higher electricity rates and imbalance between supply and demand of electricity amid searing heat. One of the reasons for such sorry state of affairs is that most of the government agencies owe the Punjab State Power Corporation Limited (PSPCL) crores of rupees in unpaid electricity bills.

As per sources in the department in Ludhiana, many government departments have failed to deposit the pending power bills, the amounts of which are in several crores.

The PSPCL supplies power to about 54 departments. The majority of the departments owe crores of rupees to power corporation. These include Local Bodies Department Rs 87.26 crore, Water Supply and Sanitation Rs 53 crore, Health and Family Welfare Rs 26.56 crore, Rural Development and Panchayat Rs 21.15 crore, Home Affair and Jails Rs 5 crore, District Courts and Bar Association Rs 4.92 crore to name a few. The Courts have started paying the bills but not the Bar Association, stressed an official wishing not to be quoted.

He added that despite several reminders, the government offices have not paid the bills. On top of it, there are power thefts. “In slum areas, the masses steal power from the main lines in areas especially in Transport Nagar and Industrial Area. We do cut the lines but then again, the lines are connected illegally to get power by these slum dwellers,” said the official adding that there were many congested areas inside the city, who had got the load sanctioned much lesser than they were consuming actually. The department acted only when such cases came to the light because the bills were regularly paid by these consumers.

The department was not able to control the demand and supply ratio because of many such issues involved as domestic and commercial users had also put “kundis” in many areas, said the official.

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