BHUBANESWAR: The Central Electricity Supply Utility (Cesu) will resume second phase arrear collection-cum-disconnection drive from February 16 to realise huge arrears pending against different categories of consumers.
In second phase special drive, the power distribution utility will touch domestic consumers across its operational area divided into 20 divisions under five circles in eight districts and a part of Jajpur.
Of the massive arrears of Rs 1,971 crore till the second week of December 2019, over Rs 1,023 crore was pending against domestic consumers who constitute 92 per cent of total defaulters.
With a consumer base of 27 lakh in nine districts of Jagatsinghpur, Cuttack, Puri, Dhenkanal, Angul, Kendrapara, Nayagarh, Khurda and part of Jajpur, Rs 1,971 crore was ending against 7.78 lakh consumers as on December 10, 2019.
“In the first phase of the special drives, Cesu disconnected power supply to 21,339 commercial consumers and collected an arrear of Rs 72.66 crore including Rs 7.36 crore online payments,” said Cesu spokesperson Subrat Mishra.
After launching its special drive for arrear collection from January 16, Cesu had suspended the operation for 10 days till February 15. The utility has provided another opportunity to the consumers to clear their arrear bills to avoid power disconnection.
A collection of Rs 5.79 crore has been reported during the 10 days taking the total collection to Rs 78.45 crore. This includes part collection and revision of disputed bills.
Mishra said Cesu had received applications from 35,277 consumers for bill revision and 1,00,694 consumers have requested for paying their arrear dues in instalments.
Meanwhile, Nesco and Southco - have announced a similar drive from February 16. While Nesco has arrears of over `1,526 crore pending on both domestic and commercial consumers in five north-eastern districts, Southco has around `1,357 crore in eight southern districts.