Unpaid Bills, J&K Cuts Power To Houses Of Azad, BJP’s Raina, Langeh; settlement colony

While Azad could not be contacted, sources close to the former opposition leader in the Rajya Sabha confirmed that power to his residence was cut off on Saturday night.

Maintaining that she has regularly paid the electricity bills, Raina said by phone: “I am in Rajouri at the moment. I will find out the reasons for the disconnection after returning to Jammu.”

Besides Azad and Raina, another prominent political leader whose house faced a blackout from the Department of Energy Development is BJP‘s Neelam Langeh, former Ramban MLA.

The three leaders are staying at government accommodation in Gandhi Nagar, an upmarket resort in the city of Jammu, and department sources said their arrears had accumulated more than Rs 2 lakhs.

A source said that the power supply was also cut off at the houses of the people living in the Balmiki colony as their individual arrears had also crossed Rs 2 lakh. The residents of this colony had not paid their electricity bills since they were brought from neighboring Punjab and settled in Jammu several decades ago, according to the source.

A senior engineer from the Department of Energy said residents of Balmiki Colony claimed that the then J&K state government settled them here with the promise that all facilities would be provided to them free of charge in lieu of their sanitation work in the city of Jammu.

Noting that the campaign against defaulters will continue, this engineer said that the power supply to the Gandhi Nagar store of a major restaurant chain that operates across the country will also be disconnected on Sunday for non-payment of bills. Power to the restaurant was also cut off two days earlier, but was later restored after partial payment of the outstanding bill. The dues have again crossed Rs 2 lakh and hence the power supply to the restaurant will be disconnected following the orders of the UT administration, said this engineer.

In September 2022, the J&K management had announced an amnesty for domestic energy consumers on interest accrued on their energy bills for non-payment of installments. The Rs 937.34 crore exemption, which benefits more than 5.50 lakh domestic consumers, was approved by the Administrative Council, which met in Srinagar under the Lieutenant Governor. sinha hands.

But most of the defaulters didn’t pay their dues until last month, department officials said.

According to figures compiled by the department, J&K management had spent Rs 6,317 crore on power purchases in 2020-21. In 2019-20, its power bill was Rs 6072 crore and Rs 6058 crore in 2018-19. Against this, the Department of Energy earned revenue of only Rs 2.6 billion from consumers in 2021.