Default higher in other parts of State, but Vidarbha bears brunt of disconnection; published on Jan 16, 2013

Default higher in other parts of State, but disconnections are more in Vid

• Water schemes across Maharashtra default payment of power bills of Rs 539 crore, of which Aurangabad and Nashik divisions’s share is Rs 199 cr and Rs 155 cr respectively

Staff Reporter

Once again, step-motherly treatment meted out to Vidarbha has come to fore. This time, it is related to default of power bills for water supply schemes and disconnections. While the default of bills is higher in other parts of Maharashtra, disconnections are proportionately more in Vidarbha region.

According to sources, recently a review of power bills’ default in entire State was taken. The information that was placed on record revealed some interesting details related to default of power bills of individual/regional water supply schemes. Of all six administrative divisions, Nagpur had the lowest default of Rs 6.0987 crore for individual/regional water schemes. However, it saw power supply to 83 schemes getting severed. Of these, sources said, many schemes saw permanent disconnection. The district-wise number of water schemes in Nagpur Division that saw permanent disconnection included Wardha -- 04, Bhandara-- 03, Gondia -- 02, Chandrapur -- 52, and Gadchiroli -- 05. As far as Amravati Division was concerned, it had default of Rs 76.5085 crore and it saw 78 disconnections.

Compared to this, default in other parts of State was much higher for the period between March 31 and December 31, 2012. Aurangabad Division comprising eight districts namely Aurangabad, Jalna, Parbhani, Hingoli, Nanded, Beed, Latur, and Osmanabad had defaulted power bills’ payment of a whopping Rs 199.2146 crore! However, it saw only 31 disconnections! Interestingly, this is among the divisions facing severe drought situation. It is followed by Nashik Division comprising five districts namely Nashik, Dhule, Nandurbar, Jalgaon,and Ahmednagar. Here, the default amounts to Rs 155.5212 crore, and it has faced maximum disconnections of 325. But, said an official, number of disconnections to bill amount is lesser if one compared that ratio of Nagpur Division in Vidarbha.

Pune Division, which is often called power centre of Maharashtra, comprises five districts namely Pune, Satara, Sangli, Solapur, and Kolhapur. Here, default is of Rs 76.4911 crore and disconnections are only 52. If one compares this to bill figure of Amravati, it becomes clear that disconnections are proportionately more in Amravati Division. Konkan Division comprising of four districts namely Thane, Raigad, Ratnagiri, and Sindhudurg had defaulted power bills payment of Rs 25.2193 crore and it saw 40 disconnections.

Division-wise power bills’ default and disconnections

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Division            Amount of power bill     Disconnections

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Aurangabad     Rs 199.2146 cr                         31

Nashik             Rs 155.5212 cr                       325

Amravati          Rs 76.5085 cr                          78

Pune                 Rs 76.4911 cr                           52

Konkan            Rs 25.2193 cr                          40

Nagpur             Rs 6.0987 cr                           83

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Total                 Rs 539.0534 cr                        609

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