Rs77 cr power bill dues waived so far

Chandigarh, October 22

On the directives of Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi, the Punjab State Power Corporation Limited (PSPCL) has cleared outstanding arrears of electricity bills worth Rs 77.37 crore of 96,911 domestic consumers having load below 2 KW to date.

The Chief Minister’s Office said the consumers from five zones — border zone (Sub Urban Amritsar, Gurdaspur, Tarn Taran and City Amritsar circles); central zone (East Ludhiana, West Ludhiana, Khanna and Sub Urban Ludhiana); north zone (Kapurthala, Jalandhar, Hoshiarpur and Nawanshahr); south zone (Patiala, Sangrur, Barnala, Ropar and Mohali) and west zone (Bathinda, Ferozepur, Faridkot and Muktsar) — had as many as 15.85 lakh beneficiaries with total liability of Rs 1,505 crore, out of which outstanding arrears worth Rs 77.37 crore had been waived so far.

Giving the zone-wise breakup of beneficiaries with financial liability on this account, the spokesperson said the border zone had 4.27 lakh beneficiaries (with Rs 407 crore liability), central zone had 1.84 lakh beneficiaries (Rs 1.57 crore), north zone had 2.11 lakh beneficiaries (Rs 1.78 crore), south zone had 2.86 lakh beneficiaries (Rs 2 crore) and west zone had 4.76 lakh beneficiaries (Rs 5.62 crore). — TNS