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Unpaid power bills: Punjab govt departments biggest defaulters in Doaba
Officials of PSPCL (north zone) said since the current financial year is about to end, the department has begun cutting the power connections of defaulters at various places in the north zone.
With unpaid power bills for years, various government departments continue to be the biggest power defaulters in the Doaba region.
The north zone of Punjab State Power Corporation Limited (PSPCL), which covers Kapurthala, Jalandhar, Hoshiarpur and Nawanshahr districts, the defaulting government departments collectively recorded total arrears of Rs 153 crore.
Among these government departments, the ones carrying out the largest public dealing owe a large amount of money to the power corporation. For instance, the water supply and sanitation department of the district owes Rs 128.9 crores. With a pending amount of Rs 75.08 crore, the Hoshiarpur wing of the department has the largest pending amount among all districts.
Another addition to the list of the largest defaulters is the health and family welfare department in all four districts of the Doaba region, which collectively owes Rs 5.96 crores.
The local government departments of Jalandhar, Kapurthala, Hoshiarpur and Nawanshahr owe Rs 3.39 crore.
Officials of PSPCL (north zone) said since the current financial year is about to end, the department has begun cutting the power connections of defaulters at various places in the north zone.
Deputy chief engineer Parvinder Singh said they have served notices to the defaulting government departments. “Since they are all public dealing offices, we are only serving them notices. We have asked the department to pay the pending amount by March 31,” he said.
