Srinagar ,22-Mar; Expressing serious concern over the plight of power consumers who are suffering badly due to the awful approach of PDD officials in Srinagar. The PDD recently decided to crack whip on the consumers by disconnecting connection to defaulters for nonpayment of electricity charges for past many years.A delegation from Sub-division Sheikh Bagh told that despite various Government departments owe crores to single sub-division, only domestic consumers are made to suffer every now and then.“KPDCL Officials used to announce amnesty & one-time settlements before the end of the financial year for those who were unable to pay their bills so far but this time no such initiative has been taken to give relief to people in remittance of electric tariff”,they added.They alleged that the PDD has no concrete plans to recover the amount from government departments but will act only against poor domestic consumers with low amount of bills.”The often repeated claim by the authorities is that the recoveries made against the consumers will ultimately go to the government and hence it makes little difference, but what about government departments who owe huge amount”, asked the delegation.The big defaulters’ include Estates department with above 4 crores of amount outstanding, City drainage having 2.5 Crores, CRPF with 3 crores,SMC with 2 crores, PHE with 1 crore while as other department s including JKTDC and it’s kongposh hotel ,SRTC head office etc have amount of lakhs outstanding against them.The delegation demanded that department should have given more amnesty before the conclusion of the financial year ending on 31st March while having only few days left, by making one-time settlement in reimbursement of tariff bills pending since long by organising amnesty camps at Sub Division office level or area wise to provide an opportunity to defaulters and other customers which can also help the PDD in revenue gains.“The continuous Covid-19 restrictions and disturbances due to post Article 370 have badly affected the economic condition of people in Kashmir valley particularly and the department need to provide special amnesty keeping in view the long shutdowns in J&K, owing to abrogation & then due to Covid-19, that hit the locals badly, financially as well as mentally.While speaking to AEE subdivision Sheikh Bagh Nisar Ahmad said that the law empowers the department to disconnect the power supply to the defaulters. However payments under Installments are also accepted.”The process of disconnection will continue .
