BENGALURU: An electricity bill of a whopping Rs 4.1 lakh that had accumulated as arrears for the Sewage Treatment Plant operated at BDA’s Alur Housing Project over 24 months forced BESCOM to disconnect power connection to the plant earlier this week. Residents of these flats protested against the disconnection inside the Bangalore Development Authority office a couple of days ago seeking assistance.
Nearly 1,400 of 1504 flats of the Alur project were allotted to the Economically Weaker Sections in Alur at subsidized rates two years ago. “Anywhere between 500 families have already occupied the flats. A STP that can treat up to .5 Million Litres of Sewage water per day was installed in its premises,” a senior BDA official explained. The treated water is used for gardening and other cleaning purposes, he added.
K T Gangaraju, Executive Engineer, BESCOM, Nelamangala Division, told TNIE, “The monthly bill for the STP is about Rs 16,000, and has not been paid for 24 months now. It has accumulated to Rs 4.1 lakh. In addition to that, unpaid bills of vacant houses (minimum monthly bill) works out to Rs 3 lakh. After repeatedly asking them to pay up, we disconnected the power on October 5.”This is the first time BESCOM has done it in this area, Gangaraju added. “Some houses with occupants too default on the bills on and off, but after personal assurances they would pay up, we keep giving them power supply,” he said.
A BDA official said, “Payment of STP bills is the responsibility of the housing society they have formed after they moved in. However, since they belong to the economically weaker section and since many houses are still occupied, we are mulling collection of around Rs 250 every month from each house and paying it to BESCOM. The amount will go down when more houses are occupied.”BESCOM appears keen on restoring power only after the bills are settled.