Power supply to 25 villages' water works snapped

LUDHIANA: This is one power cut the common man will not complain about.
Apart from taking action against the residents who have failed to pay their electricity bills, the Punjab State Power Corporation Limited (PSPCL) has now started cracking the whip on defaulting government departments.
On Sunday, the Sundar Nagar division of the PSPCL snapped power connections of water works (public health department) at 25 villages, including Mattewara, Dehri, Booth Garh, Machian Kalan, Meharban and Kadiana Kalan.
PSPCL executive engineer, Sundar Nagar division, Gurpreet Mohinder Singh Sidhu said the connections have been severed as they failed to pay the bills even after notices were served. He said in the coming days they will also take action against the police stations.
On Saturday, the Focal Point division of the PSPCL discontinued power to Central Jail, Tajpur Road, for not paying a bill of over Rs 1 crore. However, the connection was resumed with the intervention of the district administration. Connection of Dhandari Kalan police post, too, was cut.
Sources said the Aggar Nagar division on Saturday severed power connection of sub-registrar office (west) and police post, Haibowal dairy complex.
The PSPCL officials said a special drive was being conducted in the city on the directions of the higher authorities and other defaulting government departments will also face the music. They said red paper notices have been served on the government departments.
Earlier, the PSPCL authorities had said that over 16,000 connections -- residential, commercial and industrial -- have been disconnected during the drive that will continue till March 31. Sources said like every year, an audit of the department would be done after March 31 and before that the authorities were working to recover pending power bills. Also, due to imposition of the model code of conduct, the authorities have no political pressure, they added.
Sources in the department said the list of defaulters includes DC office, forest department and district sports office, among others.