ANANTAPUR: Giving a ‘shock’ to officials of the District Water Management Agency (DWMA) of Kalyandurg, APTransco staff have disconnected power supply to the DWMA office for allowing the local municipal office to draw power from its connection illegally. Power supply to the municipal office was disconnected on August 27 as it has dues to the tune of Rs 7.77 crore to APTransco.
The municipal office was allegedly drawing power illegally from the DWMA office to meet its requirements after the supply was disconnected. According to sources, government offices in Kalyandurg Assembly constituency have pending electricity bills to the tune of Rs 50 crore.
Kalyandurg major panchayat was upgraded into a municipality way back in 2012. The electricity bills of the municipal office have been pending for the past nine years. “The APTransco officials assured to restore power supply if we pay a minimum of Rs 20 lakh electricity dues. The matter is likely to be resolved in the next couple of days,” said Municipal Commissioner Venkataramudu.
APTransco assistant director Gururaj told TNIE that the municipal office is consuming Rs 15 lakh electricity per month. The total dues have accumulated to Rs 7.77 crore. “There was no response to the notices issued to the municipal office seeking clearance of pending power dues. Hence, we disconnected power supply to the municipal office,’’ he said.
He said they came to know that the municipal office was drawing power from the DWMA office unauthorisedly. “There is a provision that a case can be registered against those who give power to those whose line is disconnected. Though we informed the same to the DWMA officials on a couple of occasions earlier, they continued to allow the municipal office to draw power. Hence, we disconnected power supply to the DWMA office five days ago,’’ he said.
DWMA assistant project director Ramesh Nayak said it was unfortunate that power supply to the office was disconnected though they have no pending dues. “Despite our repeated requests to APTransco, they are delaying restoration of power supply. Just because the two offices are on the same premises, they cannot disconnect power supply to us,’’ he said.