ONGOLE: Electricity users owe Rs 392.5 crore to Andhra Pradesh Central Power Distribution Company (APCPDCL)-Ongole circle, according to official data. Power bills amounting to Rs 300 crore are yet to be cleared by offices of 12 government departments.
In order to mount pressure on the defaulters, the discom has issued orders authorising its officials to disconnect power supply to mandal revenue offices, village secretariats and others, which are yet to clear power bills of over a year.
On June 1, the energy department staff had disconnected the supply to nearly 25 mandal-level offices. Similarly, 40 other government offices across the district, which are yet to clear dues worth Rs 60 crore, lost power supply too before their connection was restored on the intervention of the district collector.
The APCPDCL has stopped providing power to 37 connections that belong to various offices situated in the district headquarters near old RIMS building complex, NSP Office complex and Pragathi Bhavan complex.
As a result of the power cut, the daily functioning of these offices were affected badly. After the intervention of the district collector, the discom later restored the power supply to all mandal level offices after securing undertakings from the concerned officers.
"Twelve key government departments owe us around Rs 300 crore. The remaining Rs 92.5 crore is payable private/industrial consumers. Vigilance teams conduct regular raids and special drives are conducted for the early recovery of dues," superintending engineer-Ongole circle KVG Satyanarayana told TNIE on Friday.
The panchayat raj department has the highest amount of dues of Rs 123.99 crore that it must pay to the discom, followed by rural water supply (Rs 100.05 crore) and irrigation department (Rs 34.6 crore).