Present Power scenario in state - Why govt is unable to collect bills?
- Hueiyen Lanpao Editorial :: June 18 2012 -

Chingthou Keicha from the desk

The present scenario of electricity in the state is at its lowest level beyond imagination. With just 2 to 4 hours of power supply a day, no one can imagine how the state will race towards the development trend being witnessed all over the world today.

Even though, the government has promised adequate power supply and devised plans to collect the due bills from the consumers, the situation remains the same as it was and the government is not able to collect the due bills.

It is obvious that the state government is spending around Rs 20 crores a month to buy electric from other power corporation so that it can ensure at least 18 hours of electric supply to the people of the state. It is reported that the power department could only collect some Rs 4 or 5 crores from its consumers as bill per month.

If the government buys adequate electric for 18 hours supply, where is that 14 hours of power supply which got lost? This is the question in the mind of the people.

In this point, let's just think over the reason behind the inability of the state government to collect bills from its consumers.

About a decade ago, the power situation was much better as compared to the situation today. At that time, people get more than 10 hours of power supply for sure.

Before that, officials of state power department used to go from house to house, read the power meter and calculate the bill according to the meter reading. At that time, people used to pay their bills regularly.

However, officials began to neglect their duties of going from house to house to conduct meter reading and started making bills while being seated in their office working out an approximate usage of power based on previous readings. Government also established sub offices at various cluster areas so that consumers can easily pay their bill in their own localities.

But there have been many instances in which officials concerned not clearing the bill even after the same had been paid by the consumers. Such negligence and insincerity on the part of the officials discourage the people to put faith and clear their pending electricity bills through them.

By and by, the officials began to neglect their duties more and more, started making bills on tables once or twice in a year and send it to the consumers with high surcharges for not clearing their bills in time.

With such incidents becoming more frequent, consumers felt reluctant to pay their bills and began to pose a challenge to the government, especially the officials of the power department.

On the other hand, government does not pay any attention whenever a transformer went out of order. Despite numerous complaints, they refused to repair the faulty transformer.

In such a situation, poor consumers were left with no option but to repair the faulty transformers with their own money. Whenever an electric wire got snapped or cut off, the linemen charged some amounts from the locality to fix it.

The whole system of billing has changed a lot today. Now they charged a fixed amount of bill from the consumers. Moreover, the bill amount varies from place to place ranging from Rs 190 to Rs 410.

While they are providing 2 to 4 hours of power supply, they are charging full amount from the consumers as if they are providing uninterrupted power supply.

While some are getting hardly two hours of power supply, some are enjoying uninterrupted power supply 24x7. What's more, if you go to an office of the power department to clear pending bill for more than one year, the dealing clerks would ask for some commission and reduce the bill by half.

If that is the situation, who would be willing to pay electric bill? There would be none, we bet. So, the government needs to work sincerely and take up a plan which can be agreeable to both the consumers and the government, like waiving some percentage of the pending bills and restart a whole new system dutifully.

Only then, the power distribution system in the state will change towards a better direction. Let's hope for the best, anyway.