KURNOOL: Transmission Corporation of Andhra Pradesh (AP Transco) has disconnected power supply to all major irrigation offices in Kurnool district due to non-payment of pending power bills run into crores. Power bill arrears of pumping stations and offices of irrigation department in the district mounted to Rs 2,100 crore in the last three years, Transco superintendent engineer Sivaprasad Reddy said.
Speaking to TNIE, he said power bills to the tune of Rs 2,400 crore are pending from all government departments including irrigation, panchayat offices, municipalities, revenue and others. Out of that, Rs 2,100 crore was pending from the irrigation department. “We have disconnected power supply to 12 irrigation offices including CE office, circle offices and sub divisional offices in Kurnool, Nandyal and Adoni divisions on September 30. Till now, we did not get any serious response from the officials concerned,” he said.
Earlier, Transo officials sent notices to all irrigation pumping stations and offices, seeking a reply within four days. After they got no response from the officials concerned, Transco disconnected power supply to the Irrigation department offices as a warning. Transco officials are planning to cut power supply to even the pumping stations with permission from higher officials.
The irrigation department has four divisional, 16 sub-divisional and three administration offices in Kurnool district including Chief Engineer office, Circle office of minor irrigation and Circle office of Handri Neeva Sujala Sravanti project. It has eight pumping stations, which are used to lift water to irrigation canals at various places including Malyala, Nandikotkur, Krishnagiri, Mallepalle, Kambalapadu, Gundlakanuma and Lakkasagaram. Each irrigation pumping station incurs Rs 12 crore power bill on an average every month. And each office got monthly bills between Rs 10,000 and Rs 20,000.
At present, offices of irrigation departments have been functioning without power. Superintendent Engineer for Kurnool (major irrigation) K Nagaraju, who is also the chief engineer of HNSS project, said that they brought the issue to the notice of higher officials. He hoped that the government would sanction the amount. “On our part, a detailed report was sent to the State government recently,” he said.
Pending bills in Kurnool