Punjab govt departments owe ₹97 cr to PSPCL in north zone

JALANDHAR: Various government departments in the north zone have failed to pay bills amounting to ₹96.8 crore to Punjab State Power Corporation Limited (PSPCL).

“Despite repeated reminders and notices, only a few departments cleared their power bills,” said a PSPCL official in the north zone, which comprises Jalandhar, Kapurthala, Hoshiarpur, and SBS Nagar districts.

The public health department is the biggest defaulter, with its four branches collectively owing ₹81.3 crore to PSPCL by Januaryend. While the Hoshiarpur branch has defaulted on around ₹47.3 crore, the SBS Nagar, Kapurthala and Jalandhar branches have to pay up ₹ 22 crore, ₹8 crore and ₹ 4 crore, respectively.

Hospitals and government dispensaries have total dues of ₹5.5 crore, while municipalities and water works department have pending power bills amounting to ₹2.9 crore. Other defaulters are tehsil offices (₹1.2 crore) and Punjab Police (₹85.9 lakh).

PSPCL supplies power to 35 government departments. Even as the fiscal is coming to an end, it has not disconnected supply to any of the defaulters so far.

“I have instructed the staff to disconnect power supply to all defaulting offices, except those where electronic voting machines are kept. Since most of these departments deal with the public directly, we are initially sending them notices, asking them to pay bills,” said PSPCL north zone chief engineer Devinder Singh Tiwana.