VIJAYAWADA: Chief Secretary (CS) LV Subramanyam directed the heads of departments, which haven’t paid power bills, to immediately take steps to clear the dues to the tune of Rs 6,000 crore. Of the pending bills, water resources department alone owes discoms Rs 2,000 crore, while panchayat raj and rural development department has to pay about Rs 500 crore.
Municipal Administration and Urban Development, and health and medical are the other departments which have arrears to clear. In a review meeting held at the Secretariat on Tuesday, Subramanyam directed the principal finance secretary SS Rawat to expedite the clearance of files related to bill payments to discoms, and other proposals from Energy department related to payments.
The Chief Secretary told the water resources department to clear the payments in convergence with the expenditure from the proposed water grid project. Similarly, the panchayat raj and rural development department was asked to use the general funds available at village level to pay the bills.