Non-payment of bills: Power supply to Banbasa headwork colony snapped

BD Kasniyal

Pithoragarh, December 8

Residents of Sharda headwork colony at Banbasa town of Champawat district, owned by Uttar Pradesh, are facing electricity cuts for the past three days. The Uttarakhand Power Corporation has stopped supply of electricity claiming that the headwork authorities had not paid bills of Rs 10 crore.

The UPGovernment owns the Sharda headwork, which runs a canal from the Sharda river to irrigate over 22 lakh acre of agriculture land in 550-km area of UP and also supplies water to run the hydroelectric project at Lohiahead near Banbasa. The irrigation properties between Uttarakhand and UP have not been divided yet.

“We have discontinued the electricity supply to the Sharda headwork colony as the department has not paid our electricity bills, amounting Rs 10 crore for the past few years,” said BM Bhatt, an officer of Uttarakhand Power Corporation at Banbasa.

On the other hand, the Sharda headwork employees said Uttarakhand also owed them Rs 40 crore for the water supplies provided to run the Lohiahead power house. “Though we may also resort to the same tactic by stopping water to the hydro project, we have sent the report to our senior officer in Bareilly, UP, and have complained to the state government about violation of human rights by Uttarakhand Power Corporation officers,” an employee of Sharda headwork said.