CESC to start mopping up dues from govt depts

BK

Lakshmikantha

Mysuru: The Chamundeshwari Electricity Supply Corporation (

CESC

) has launched a massive drive to collect Rs 871.3 crore dues from government departments and agencies. It has started issuing notices to the department and agency heads to pay pending bills within a week or face power disconnection. According to CESC authorities, 34 local bodies including corporation, city and town municipalities have a pending bill amount of Rs 66.8 crore, while government departments owe a whopping Rs 539.23 crore while gram panchayats owe Rs 274 crore to the power supplier. Out of the five districts CESC distributes electricity, local bodies in Mysuru have the highest dues with Rs 209.49 crore followed by

Mandya

at Rs 53.92 crore, Chamarajanagar at Rs 41.4 crore, Hassan at Rs 33.99 crore and the lowest is

Kodagu

at Rs 2.96 crore. The authorities have issued notices to 1,069 government departments and agencies in the five districts. The water resource department alone should pay Rs 129.63 crore while the industries department has a pending bill of Rs 35.91 crore. Just a few days back, CESC disconnected power supply to Gundlupet Sub-Registrar office for not paying a huge pending amount. CESC managing director

Jayavibhavaswamy

told TOI that CESC engineers have issued notices to local bodies and government departments who have a pending bill of more than Rs 5 lakh and warned of disconnecting electricity supply. “Any electricity bill itself is a notice. It is clearly mentioned on the bill that not paying the amount within the due date will be liable for disconnection. Before going for disconnection drive, we have given sufficient notices to all defaulters and have also informed the heads of departments and agencies,” he said. He said as these defaulters have failed to pay the arrears, the interest to arrears has increased over the years. “It is the responsibility of the government departments and local bodies to pay the bills. To avoid this problem, we are introducing prepaid meters by 2025. By 2023, the meters will be installed at to all commercial establishments and the first target will be government offices. The power for Gundlupet sub-registrar office was disconnected for not paying arrears and they have agreed to pay,” he said adding that defaulters must pay arrears and also reconnection charges to get power supply back.
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