Rajkot: Paschim Gujarat Vij Company Ltd (PGVCL) has tightened its noose around 42 municipalities coming under Saurashtra-Kutch region, asking them to pay electricity bill arrears to the tune of Rs 316 crore. Failing to pay the whopping electricity bill arrears in the stipulated time, the West Gujarat Power Company will start disconnecting electricity connection in the next few days. Non-payment of outstanding bills running into crores of rupees have put the municipal officials in a tizzy.
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Despite several reminders to these municipalities coming under Saurashtra and Kutch region of the western Gujarat, they were not paying heed to the PGVCL's warnings. Hence, the PGVCL has begun disconnecting power supply to waterworks department of these municipalities, street lights and others.
"Our electricity department engineers gave them (municipalities) clear instructions to pay the minimum bill amount of the current month besides paying the arrears. Besides they were asked to furnish the payment plan for the outstanding bills. How and when it will be cleared should be known to us. If they failed to pay the bills of the current month, including outstanding bills, then action will be initiated against them," said MD of the PGVCL Varun Kumar Varanwale.
"We convened several meetings with officials of Saurashtra and Kutch municipalities for the outstanding bill payment. But all efforts went in vain. They were unresponsive. Whereas we have received a scheme from Government of India, wherein such outstanding amount owned by the state government-run offices — will be treated as debt. It appear in our record as debt or bad loans. That's why we have initiated the process of recovering these outstanding amount," Baranwale added.
