AURANGABAD: Over 19 lakh electricity consumers from Marathwada have not paid their monthly power bills of the past seven months, leading to dues mounting to Rs 13,565 crore, data from the Maharashtra State Electricity Distribution Company Limited (MSEDCL) shows.
Sunil Jadhav, MSEDCL deputy chief public relations officer for Aurangabad division, on Thursday said that the number of defaulters are over two-third of the total consumers drawing low-tension power in the eight districts of Marathwada.
“The state power utility has again appealed to the consumers to pay their dues. In keeping with the state government directives, no disconnection drive has been planned yet. However, paying dues is beneficial for consumers as well as MSEDCL,” he said.
As per the official data, most defaulters (9,88,612) are domestic consumers, who owe Rs 847.3 crore. Over 8 lakh agricultural consumers owe Rs 10,534.6 crore. A total of 16,246 local self-governing bodies from the region drawing power for street lights owe Rs 1,543.5 crore.
Some activists have blamed the state government for causing confusion among consumers regarding payment of power bills during the pandemic. “Leaders of the ruling parties made some statements, which created an impression that people are likely to get partial waiver in the bills,” activist Vishnu Dhobale said.
Ashok Kolte, a power consumer, said top leaders from the ruling parties had promised a partial waiver in power bills as a relief to the public. “I have not paid bills since the outbreak of Covid-19 in the hope of some waiver. It is wrong on the part of the leaders to mislead people,” he said.
MSEDCL authorities said the statements made by the leaders were related to complaints of alleged inaccuracies in bills. “We held many consumer camps and the doubts related to the billing process were addressed,” a senior MSEDCL official said
