BALASORE: Four municipal areas of Balasore, Bhadrak, Baripada and Jajpur Road along with 10 notified area councils (NACs) in northern Odisha would soon plunge into darkness with the North Eastern Electricity Supply Company (NESCO) threatening to snap power supply for non-payment of dues.Reports said Balasore Municipality has arrears of Rs 9.6 crore, followed by Bhadrak Rs 6.7 crore, Baripada Rs 5.2 crore and Jajpur RoadRs 5.6 crore.Not only the urban local bodies (ULBs), but government establishments and public sector units (PSUs) also have been asked to clear their outstanding bills to avoid disconnection of power. Sources said electricity dues of around `85.17 crore are pending on the government offices, ULBs and PSUs functioning in five northern districts of the State.In a notice, while the power distribution company has intimated that the power supply will be snapped from the offices of Agriculture, Gridco, OLIC, Panchayati Raj, Veterinary, Gram Panchayat, Industries, OTDC, Forest, Handloom Textiles, Sports and Cultural on March 19, municipalities and NACs will face the music on March 20.Similarly, power will be disconnected from the offices of RWSS, PWW, Cooperatives, Fisheries, PWD and RD on March 21 followed by Law, Judiciary, Revenue, Health, Home, Education and others on March 22.According to the officials, around Rs 46.63 crore is due towards electricity bills on different State Government offices while the municipalities have the pending bills worth around Rs 27.1 crore. The PSUs, on the other hand, have to pay Rs 10 crore. The dues include delayed payment surcharge.Incidentally, NESCO ranks fourth in the dues list among the four distcoms - CESU, NESCO, WESCO and SOUTHCO functioning in the State. NESCO has to recover Rs 85.17 crore followed by CESU Rs 120.98 crore, WESCO Rs 153.29 crore and SOUTHCO Rs 91.34 crore. NESCO Managing Director Sandesh Rane said the recently introduced one time settlement (OTS) scheme has gained considerable momentum. “While more than 80,000 consumers have already availed of the benefits of up to 40 per cent rebate on old arrears, we have appealed to the government establishments to make payments under the scheme to be extended till March 31 and clear the outstanding dues,” he said.He added that NESCO will implement a massive disconnection drive to reduce the arrears and improve cash flow essentially required for operations and system improvement.
Comments
0 comment