Pondicherry electricity dept collects Rs 14 lakh

Puducherry: Puducherry electricity department, which had initiated the policy of 'naming and shaming' by publishing the names of defaulters who failed to pay power bill dues, collected Rs 14 lakh 0n a single day.

Puducherry Lt Governor Kiran Bedi had warned of stringent action against defaulters and had directed the department to publish the names of defaulters in newspapers and also announce them on FM radio channels.

The electricity department had Rs 120 crore accumulated power bill dues for months together from various categories of power consumers belonged to commercial, industrial and domestic categories.

"Jump in power arrears collection in one single day over the counters is Rs 14 lakh. Online collections are yet to be accounted from the banks," said Ms Bedi in a WhatsApp message.

The Lt Governor said that from Wednesday  all language papers will carry the defaulter list and also radio FM will announce the names of defaulters.

"The objective is to recover power dues which rightly belong to the people to meet infrastructure needs. Name and shame the defaulters and thereby recover your finances which are due from the defaulters. The departments will have enough resources to pay the salaries, clear past bills, and invest in infrastructure," she said.

Showering praise on the secretary and director of Local Administration Department (LAD) for initiating such an action the Lt Governor also directed the major revenue earning departments to institute action on the same lines.  

Following this the Secretary of LAD  P Jawahar in his letter to Malarkannan director of the department asked to initiate the same strategy adopted by the electricity department to collect the arrears including property tax, trade licence, municipality rent and cable tv tax.

"Local bodies in Puducherry should also adopt such a strategy to recover their long pending dues, In addition, the local bodies should also proceed action against defaulters by evoking the provisions of Revenue Recovery Act through the district collector," said Mr Jawahar in his letter