KAILASHAHAR, July 14 (TIWN): Various government department of Unokoti district owes Rs 80 lakh to Tripura State Electricity Corporation Ltd (TSECL) as power bill for past two years.

TSECL has failed to recover the pending power bills 14 government departments of the district.

Based on information of TSECL around 14 departments and offices have lapsed on their bill payment. The Government offices include Sub-Divisional Magistrate office, District Magistrate office and others important public institutions.

The major defaulters of electricity bill are BDO Gournagar dues of Rs 64.6 lakh and it has 27 electricity connection in 24 connection of electricity the Drinking Water and Sanitation owes Rs 39.2 Lakh District Magistrate office including quarters and others which has total 25 electricity connections has a pending amount of Rs. 2.76 lakh.

With 6 connections the Sub-Divisional Magistrate office including quarters and others has a pending amount of Rs. 2.23 Lakh. The police department has been found with a pending amount of Rs. 18.69 Lakh and has 31 connections in total, as per the official report.

As per the report, The Education Department (Rs. 60, 1865) with 46 electricity connection, ITI (Rs. 54, 593) with 4 connections, with 2 connections the SPSB has been found with a pending amount of Rs. 48, 621. Besides, Forest Department with 6 connections has a pending amount of Rs. 34, 763, Water Resource (Rs. 84, 833) with 6 connections, BDO Chandipur (Rs. 35, 8471) with 4 connections, Animal Resource Development Department (Rs. 12, 679) with 5 connections, Jail (Rs. 61, 598) and lastly, the Agricultural Department (Rs. 4, 084) with 4 connections.

BJP Unakoti District committee President Ranjan Saha criticised while the Corporation continues to burden its consumer to offset losses, the corporation not been able to recover power bills worth lakhs from several Government department and offices.

He further said that this amount should be recovered on priority basis and if the institutions fail to pay, strict action should be taken against them.

The official of the corporation, however, clarified that despite the stunning figures of pending bills; the power connection to the departments cannot not be disconnected as most of their services come under the emergency category.

He further added that the Government departments with multiple connections usually don’t pay bills on a regular basis because of budgetary constraints. Most of them pay only when they are granted funds by the State government.