E-Paper
Major defaulters unscathed by power drive
IT SEEMS all the Power Corporation?s revenue realisation drives are restricted to targeting small consumers. The big defaulters usually go scot-free. For instance, the Power Corporation has been supplying uninterrupted power to the closed Fertilizer Corporation of India (FCI) unit here for the last 15 years. But, it has failed to realise a single paisa from the unit.
IT SEEMS all the Power Corporation’s revenue realisation drives are restricted to targeting small consumers. The big defaulters usually go scot-free.
For instance, the Power Corporation has been supplying uninterrupted power to the closed Fertilizer Corporation of India (FCI) unit here for the last 15 years. But, it has failed to realise a single paisa from the unit.
The FCI premises were acquired by Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB) battalion, which has its offices in the building. As the electricity connection is in the name of the closed FCI unit, Power Corporation officials cannot issue electricity bills to the SSB. They have not dared to snap the connection or have it in the SSB’s name.
This is only one instance of the apathetic attitude of Power Corporation officials and their style of functioning.
All this leaves the corporation with huge losses. Though the corporation launched many intensive combing drives in the last 15 years to check power theft and regularise connections, they never paid any attention to this mistake.
In fact, officials seemed to have adopted the tactic of punishing small electricity consumers in order to increase revenue. Despite tall claims, officials failed to crack down on big defaulters and musclemen.
This came to light once again during the recently concluded two-day intensive combing drive jointly launched by Power Corporation employees and district officials. Fifteen teams were constituted to carry out a combing drive, but they left big defaulters alone. These defaulters owed over Rs 25 lakh to the corporation. Sources said the corporation could realise only 9.19 per cent of the dues of big defaulters.
In contrast, the corporation realised 72.93 per cent of the outstanding payment against small consumers. Officials snapped electricity connections of small consumers and lodged FIRs against them.
In Gorakhpur alone, five institutions owed Rs 592.47 lakh to the Power Corporation till March 1. The corporation could only realise Rs 58.15 lakh from them. The corporation failed to realise revenue from big defaulters of Maharajganj district who owed Rs 43.87 lakh. In Gorakhpur, three out of the five big defaulters moved court. They owed over Rs 1 crore.
