On one side politicians demand
better facilities in terms of uninterrupted power supply, on the other hand they do not clear the power bills while vacating the official residences. Since politicians have started tasting the bitter truth of nonpayment of power bills because under the President's rule these politicians do not deserve special facilities. And the Power Development Department has furnished details about defaulters among senior politicians belong to mainstream political parties have been found defaulters in clearing power tariff. Many prominent politicians of different parties, who have availed the government accommodations, owe electricity charges worth Rs 42.4 lakhs to the Power Development Department (PDD).
As per the official figures, a total of Rs 42,42,522 electricity bill of politicians is pending till August 31 this year. Among the prominent political leaders who owe money to PDD include PDP leader Sartaj Madni, whose total outstanding is Rs 3.78 lakh, PDP leader Ghulam Nabi Lone Hanjura who owes Rs 1.21 lakh, PDP leader Mohammad Shafi Bhat who owes Rs 1.84 lakh, Abdul Gani Vakil owes Rs 4.20 lakh and National Conference (NC) leader Akbar Lone has total outstanding balance of Rs 79367.Similarly, Fayaz Ahmad Mir of PDP owes Rs 1.16 lakh to PDD, Javid Ahmad Dar of NC owes Rs 1.52 lakh, Mohammad Shafi Niaz of Congress owes Rs 1.32 lakh, Abdul Rashid Dar of Congress owes Rs 2.94 lakh, Saifullah Mir of NC owes Rs 91,720, Noor Mohammad Sheikh of PDP owes Rs 68,281, Ali Mohammad Dar of NC owes Rs 64,528, Bali Bhagat of BJP owes Rs 50,397, Mohammad Shafi Uri of NC owes Rs 45,450 and Nazir Ahmad Laway of PDP owes Rs 24162 to the PDD.
As per rules legislators and government officials have to clear their electricity dues before vacating the official accommodation.
"The MLAs and government employees have their own agreement with the PDD. So, before leaving the residence they have to clear all their electricity bills. And the only way the Governor can do is to seek assistance from the Chief electoral officer or the election commission that who are power tariff defaulters should not be allowed to contest the elections. And once the Election Commission agreed to the Governor these politicians would line up before the windows of the PDD to clear their dues.
Otherwise whatever they owe to the PDD cannot be reimbursed because of the way these politicians can seek legal help.
The other way is to seize their property and these politicians have sufficient property that could cover the power dues. And it is because of poor revenue that he PDD is not able to undertake implementation of a major project which could resolve the acute power shortage in the state. |
