Bhubaneswar: A total of Rs 482 crore electricity bill is pending on various departments of Odisha government, out of which the highest amount of Rs 219 crore is pending on the housing and urban development department in the state, sources in the state government said on Thursday.Expressing displeasure with the departments over the huge amount of electricity bill pending on the government, Odisha chief secretary (CS) Aditya Prasad Padhi has directed the concerned authorities to pay the pending bill by March end.
Reviewing the rural electrification at a meeting with the collectors through a video conferencing programme on Wednesday, Mr Padhi suggested them to cooperate the departments in the payment of pending electricity bills. However, he asked the collectors not to disconnect the power connection to drinking water sources. He directed them to make the transformers functional within 48 hours of their blowing up.Mr Padhi also directed to complete the rural electrification work in 847 villages of the state by May this year. The government is targeting for providing electricity connection to all the hamlets by May 2018 and houses by May 2019 across the state.
Notably, school and mass education department owes Rs 31 crore to the government through electricity dues, while Rs 26 crore dues is pending on rural development department, Rs 28 crore on panchayat raj department, Rs 53 crore on other departments. On the other hand, around Rs 3,000 crore electricity bill is pending on the consumers across the state.
