Noida: Discom to pull the plug on 12,000 consumers over outstanding electricity bills

NOIDA: Irked with the lacklustre response shown by consumers towards payment of pending bills despite schemes and rebates offered, the Pashchimanchal Vidyut Vitran Nigam Limited (PVVNL) has decided to disconnect power lines of over 12,000 defaulting consumers who owe the discom a total of ₹10 crore. Officials said these consumers have not deposited any amount against their electricity bills in the last two years, officials said.

In the first week of December last year, the discom has called off its disconnection drive against another 65,000 consumers for not clearing their outstanding power dues of ₹3.25 crore, upon instructions by state energy minister Shrikant Sharma.

PVVNL chief engineer Virendra Nath Singh said that these 12,000 defaulter consumers have been identified by the discom’s portal. “We had sent mandatory notices to them before launching the crackdown against them. But all our requests for clearing outstanding dues fell on deaf ears. As a result, we started pulling plugs from Wednesday and within three weeks, we’ll disconnect power lines of all those 12,000 major defaulters,” he said.

He further said that after the disconnection drive, recovery penalties will be issued against these defaulters to ensure recovery through the legal route. “The PVVNL had been offering many schemes like easy instalments and one-time settlement to them so that defaulters can clear their outstanding bills easily. We had also decided to waive off the interest on their outstanding bills but even then, they didn’t pay any attention. Finally, we had no option other than to pull the plug permanently and initiate legal action against them,” he said.

The PVVNL has 3.25 lakh consumers in Gautam Budh Nagar district and the total outstanding dues of these consumers stand at over ₹25 crore.