GUNTUR: People in a majority of the 1,011 village panchayats in Guntur district are being pushed into darkness in the night with street lights not glowing due to power cut. The electricity department has cut power supply to the villages with the authorities having to pay bills to the tune of Rs 83 crore, pending since 2014. The panchayats have been failing to clear the pending bills due to non-availability of funds. The officials of the panchayats sought sanction of funds by the government to clear the bills.
The Undavalli village panchayat, where Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu is living, has to pay Rs 60 lakh pending power bills and Amaravati village panchayat, from which the name of the new Capital was taken, has to pay Rs 1.10 crore pending bills. The village panchayats use electricity for street lights, water supply and for its offices. The village panchayats in Guntur district have to pay pending bills of Rs 42 crore for street lights, '41 crore for water supply and nearly '1 crore for power in their offices.
A resident of Prathipadu village panchayat, D. Sreenivasulu, said streets were plunging into darkness without the lights. Women, old-aged persons and children are fearing to come out of the houses in the night without the street lights. "We are using torch lights to go out." All India Panchyat Parishad national secretary and Sarpanches Association president J. Veeranjaneyulu said that the village panchayats in the 13 districts of AP together have to pay Rs 1,350 crore pending bills to the power department. The actual bills amount to Rs 750 crore but the surcharge for late payments has increased the amount. He said that a majority of the village panchayats were reeling under financial crisis and so submitted a memorandum to minister of panchayat raj N. Lokesh seeking allotment of funds to pay the pending bills.
