6K cr power bills due from depts: CS L V Subrahmanyam

Amaravati: Chief secretary L V Subrahmanyam expressed concern over the power bill dues from various departments to the energy department.

Reviewing the power bill dues of over Rs 6,000 crore at the Secretariat here on Tuesday, the chief secretary instructed the heads of departments to mobilise resources to pay the arrears to the energy department.

According to the officials, Rs 2,000 crore from water resources department, Rs 500 crore from panchayat and rural development department are due apart from municipal administration, medical and health and other departments.

The chief secretary instructed Gopalakrishna Dwivedi, principal secretary to panchayat raj and rural development to pay the arrears from the General Fund available. He also suggested that the power bill arrears of the water resources department should be adjusted from Water Grid scheme.

The chief secretary instructed secretary of energy department Nagulapalli Srikanth to release some amount to the power distribution companies immediately. He also instructed S S Rawath, secretary of finance department to clear the pending proposals regarding power bill dues immediately.

LV Subrahmanyam underlined the importance of setting up of Bulk Flow metres to the water reservoirs at village level and at the pumping stations to prevent wastage of drinking water. He also instructed departments concerned to conduct water audit to rightly utilise water resources.

Municipal administration secretary J Shyamala Rao, medical and health commissioner Kartikeya Mishra, water resources engineer-in-chief M Vekateswara Rao, APTransco JMD Chakradhar Babu,and other officials were also present.