Chief Secretary Somesh Kumar has instructed the officials concerned to take measures to ensure that each month gram panchayats (GPs) and municipalities are paying power bills.
All deviation from the payment is seriously noticed, he said. This was agreed to isolate unpaid debts, and a further decision would be made on payment of arrears. The Chief Secretary met with officials of electricity distribution companies, municipal administration and departments of Panchayat Raj to decide issues related to the payment of power bills. The meeting was held on Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao ‘s orders.
The Chief Secretary asked the authorities of the two discoms to prepare a comprehensive arrears report within a week, which would properly reconcile the statistics with the GPs and municipal authorities. Officials will submit comprehensive reports and arrears-related options before the chief minister takes a decision on local body arrears.
Joint committees of discoms, GPs, and local authorities should be created to address contradictions in bills such as those related to borewells.
The Chief Secretary instructed the authorities to guarantee that discoms generate their bills based on meter reading. Meters should be fixed in places where they had not been fixed at this point and the procedure should be finished within a month.
