Gurgaon's Mini Secretariat owes Rs 1.86 crore in power bills

Gurgaon's Mini Secretariat, which houses offices of many state government departments, owes nearly Rs 1.86 crore in electricity bills to Dakshin Haryana Bijli Vitran Nigam, and has left the power company clueless about how to recover the money.

Right to Information activist Sudhir Yadav had filed an RTI application on May 20 seeking details of pending electricity bills of the Mini Secretariat on Delhi-Gurgaon Expressway.

The reply revealed that Rs 1,85,68,590.79 is yet to be paid to the power company, and the electricity department has been unable to recover the amount since November 2015.

The building houses offices of all the state government departments, including Deputy Commissioner (DC), Sub-Divisional Magistrate (SDM), City Magistrate, District Revenue Officer (DRO), various Deputy Commissioners of Police (DCPs), Education Directorate, industrial, health and other departments.

Apparently, there are no clear estimates available of the amount of power consumed by each government department in the building.

The sub-station which supplies power to the Mini Secretariat is in the name of the DC office but power is consumed by all state government offices.

RTI activist Yadav said, "Ideally the bills of all the government offices should be paid on time because the money goes back to the government exchequer. The delay in payment makes things embarrassing for the department."

--IANS

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