Rural consumers in Rohtak enjoy power without paying bills

Sunit Dhawan

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Tribune News Service

Rohtak, December 30

The Uttar Haryana Bijli Vitran Nigam (UHBVN) seems to focus its attention on urban, industrial and agricultural consumers when it comes to recovering dues, while several rural domestic consumers continue to enjoy uninterrupted electricity supply without paying bills for years, at least in the Rohtak circle.

The Rohtak operation circle of the Uttar Haryana Bijli Vitran Nigam (UHBVN) recently recovered about Rs 10-crore dues during a drive to recover defaulting amount.

As for rural consumers in the circle, they owe more than Rs 200 crore to the UHBVN, sources said. Discom officials are “afraid” of asking villagers to pay the dues for the fear of being beaten up and held captive.

The pockets in which villagers do not pay their electricity bills are more prone to power thefts. Needless to mention, such “powerful” consumers thrive under political patronage.

Sources said Kiloi, Sanghi, Khidwali, Titoli, Ismaila, Madina, Kharkara, Nindana, Farmana and Bahalba villages in the Rohtak district are considered strongholds of former Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda. His Congress aides are notorious for not paying power bills.

There, however, is a silver lining. Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar, on a visit to his ancestral village Baniyani, asked its residents to pay electricity bills in time and not to steal power.

Superintending Engineer (Operations) VS Mann said the discom had recovered a substantial amount of dues from urban, agricultural and industrial consumers. “The discom has started to cover rural consumers,” he said.

“Camps are being organised in villages for issuing on-the-spot power connections, rectification in electricity bills, payment of bills and replacement of meters,” Mann said, adding that power connections to 300 domestic households in the Rohtak circle that had an outstanding amount of Rs 5.75 crore had been cut.

Village panchayats illegally drawing electricity from power supply lines have come under the UHBVN’s radar as well. “It has been noticed that in almost all of 172 villages under the Rohtak operation circle, the panchayats are drawing electricity illegally for lighting street lights and operating submersible pump sets,” Mann said, adding that a drive had been undertaken to check power thefts.

During the campaign, nearly 7,000 illegal “direct panchayati” power connections have been cut so far. In all, 67 villages have been freed from such connections and the drive is in progress in other villages as well.