Pay Rs 128 crore bill to restore power: Electricity dept to \'poor\' UP man

Mumbai: A poor man from Uttar Pradesh was charged with an electricity bill of more than Rs 128 crore. The man, who claims to have tried his best to rectify the whopping amount charged to him, said the electricity department has also cut off supply to his home allegedly because he failed to pay the bill.

Shamim, who stays with his wife in Chamri village in Uttar Pradesh's Hapur had approached the electricity department to rectify the error, but was told by officials to pay the bill, reported news agency ANI.

As per reports, the amount printed on the bill, is Rs 128, 45, 95,444 for a home connection of 2 kilowatt. "No one is listening to our pleas, how will we submit that amount? When we went to complain about it, we were told that they won't resume our electricity connection unless we pay the bill," he was quoted as saying by ANI.

He accused the electricity department of handing him over the bill of the entire city. He also said he gets an average monthly bill of only about Rs 700 or Rs 800.

"I am running from pillar to post but no one is listening. It seems that the electricity department wants me to pay the bill of whole Hapur," he said.

"We only use fan and light. How can the amount be so high? We are poor. How we will pay such a large amount," questioned Shamim's wife Khairu Nisha.

An electrical engineer with the electricity department said it was "no big deal", adding that the "technical fault" will be rectified once the bill is sent back to the department.

"This must be a technical fault. If they provide us with the bill we will issue them an updated one after rectifying the technical fault in the system. This is no big deal. Technical faults do take place," Ram Sharan, the engineer, told ANI.

In January this year, a man from Uttar Pradesh's Kannauj was sent an electricity bill for Rs 23 crore. His home electricity connection was for a total of 2 kilowatts.

In May, 2018, a vegetable vendor in Maharashtra's Aurangabad, committed suicide after he was charged Rs 8.64 lakh in March, an error which the power distribution firm said occurred because of a missing decimal point.

(With inputs from ANI)