Chandigarh: The Punjab State Electricity Board’s laxity in claiming unpaid power bills from various state government departments has landed it in a serious legal mess with the high court here summoning its chairman to explain the reasons behind lethargy. He has been asked to appear on Tuesday before the division bench headed by chief justice Tirath Singh Thakur.
The HC directive came in the wake of a PIL highlighting mounting arrears of PSEB’s unpaid power bills by different departments of Punjab government and the board’s failure to disconnect supply to these.
The PIL was filed by Kehar Singh of Fatehgarh Sahib, who asserted that even as the power rates were being consistently hiked to the detriment of the common man, the board was slack in recovering arrears upto Rs 176 crore against various state government departments.
When the bench asked the board counsel why this preferential treatment to defaulting government departments in not disconnecting the power supply as done in the case of ordinary consumers, it was submitted that disconnection was not resorted to since the departments were engaged in public service. Displeased at this, the bench ordered the presence of chairman YS Ratra, along with the chief engineer.
An affidavit filed by Amrit Lal Garg, additional secretary, department of power, Punjab, revealed that the finance department had not allocated separate budget for electricity and water except general allocation for office expenses in the annual budget. It also read that as per latest information, bills to the tune of Rs 6,303.86 lakh were outstanding as on July 31.