Bizarre: In Anantnag District, government departments tasked with settling electricity bills that amount to crores of rupees

Sameer Ahmad

Anantnag, 22 Sep:   As government departments here in Anantnag District have failed to pay their electricity liabilities on time, their liabilities have risen in crores.

According to official sources, there are several government departments in the Anantnag district which have outstanding electricity liabilities in crores and the departments have failed to pay the electricity liabilities.

Sources told Arising state that the Finance Department has last year directed all the government departments to pay the liability of the Electricity Department, which is creating an economic crisis for the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir.

Added that last year an order was issued by the Financial Commissioner, Additional Chief Secretary, Atul Dulloo, ‘that it has come to the notice of the Finance Department that there are outstanding and pending electricity dues against various Government Departments of Union Territory of J&K.’

Many government departments, of Jammu and Kashmir, have pending liabilities of the electricity department and due to non-payment of the bill for many years, the liability has touched crores of rupees.

Sources said, “by not paying regular electricity bills, various government departments are adding to the financial burden on the exchequer of the UT, “added that many successive governments of Jammu and Kashmir made efforts to settle these liabilities, but year after year it only increased.

However, the Arising state checked the IDs of some of the Government departments through MPAY in Anantnag District, which revealed that crores and lacs of outstanding bills remain pending from government departments in Anantnag District, putting the burden on the state exchequer.

Some of the government departments which have liabilities of lacs and crores of rupees are as Ex Engineer irrigation division Anantnag, consumer Id 0207010015720 of Rs 3 crore 37 lac,16 thousand four hundred forty nine, Ex Engineer PHE Mechanical division Anantnag ;Rs 16263741.00, ADC Anantnag; 415458.00, Distt_ infarmation _officer_com ;3609007, Project officer DRDA Anantnag; 1102665, etc.

There are reports that the government has failed to collect the pending electricity liabilities of the government departments. As the government is asking the people of Jammu and Kashmir to pay their outstanding electricity bills, crores of outstanding bills are still pending from government departments and the government remains silent.

It is imperative for the government to take action and collect the outstanding bills of these departments who still owe crores of rupees in liabilities, sources stated.

Meanwhile, speaking to the PDD Exension Chief in Anantnag, Bashir Ahmad said that the PDD Department provides bills on a monthly basis to these government offices that have outstanding bills of crores and lakhs of rupees, but they do not pay all the outstanding amounts.

It was admitted that these departments have outstanding bills of many years and that they are defaulters with outstanding dues yet to be cleared, the officer said.