650 villages run out of drinking water as PSPCL snaps power

Sanjeev Singh Bariana

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, March 3

Thousands of villagers across the state were affected after power supply to waterworks of more than 650 villages in Punjab was disconnected by PSPCL for non-payment of dues.

Supply to at least 300 villages out of 3,500 being maintained by the panchayats and around 275 centres out of 4,200 maintained by the Water Supply and Sanitation Department (each centre caters to three or four villages) was affected. Connection to some villages has been restored following payment of bills.

Secretary, Water Supply and Sanitation, Ajoy Kumar Sinha said, “Water supply to about 615 villages stands affected today because of non-payment of bills.”

“Following the disconnection, we have recorded a massive increase in the collection of outstanding bills. We have deposited at least Rs 141 crore with the PSPCL already and have an outstanding payment of approximately Rs 210 crore. The average collection these days was more than Rs 2.50 crore daily and we expect the situation to be normal within less a week, he added.

Sarpanch Teja Singh of Mann village in Muktsar said, “The power connection to the waterworks has not been snapped. However, with an outstanding bill of more than Rs 15 lakh we have been warned of disconnection any moment.”

“Not just here, people in a large number of villages were not willing to make even a small contribution to settle the pending dues. As such, two employees handling the waterworks in our village have not been paid their salaries on this count,” he added.

A sarpanch from Mansa said, “We are facing a great difficulty in seeking even small contributions from the villagers to pay for government schemes. I feel paying a big sum might be difficult for small panchayats so the department will have to reschedule our payment.”

No power to 6 RO plants

Muktsar: The PSPCL authorities discontinued power supply to nearly six reverse osmosis (RO) water treatment plants in the Gidderbaha subdivision for not paying the power bills.

Notably, the underground water of this area is unfit for human consumption. Besides, power supply to a large number of water works, too, was discontinued on Friday.

Meanwhile, the PSPCL officials issued a notice to the Health Department officials to pay the electricity bill of the Community Health Centre in Lambi village within five days or the supply will be discontinued. Later, the PSPCL officials even snapped the power supply to the motors installed at some village ponds. — TNS