Farmer gets ₹76.73-crore electricity bill

RAIPUR: A marginal farmer from Chhattisgarh’s Mahasamund district got the shock of his life after he was handed over an electricity bill of ₹76.73 crore for the month of September.

“This is a shocker for me and I could not believe it. I have electricity for domestic use only but they gave me a bill of ₹76.73 crore,” Ram Prasad said.

The electricity department claimed it was a technical error and Prasad’s electricity metre was changed on August 4, which led to the error in reading.

“The last reading of the old electricity metre was not entered in the system due to which this bill was generated by the department. However, there is a rule of re-checking of bills but the officials responsible have not checked it properly. Two clerks — Garun Kumar and Doj Kumar Devangan — were suspended for carelessness,” a senior officer of the department said. A new bill of ₹1,820 has been generated and given to the farmer, he added.

Opposition parties in the central state raised questions over the issue of inflated bills during the special session of the assembly held on September 24 and alleged that bills worth lakhs were being sent to Chhattisgarh farmers. Local farmer leader Amitabh Pal said Prasad’s case was not a one-off issue.

“Many small farmers are getting inflated bills in Mahasamu nd district. When on Sunday, the news of ₹76 crore broke, only then the department reached out to some of the farmers and generated new bills. This is because of the carelessness of clerks in the department. We will launch a protest in the district against the inflated bills,” said Pal.