CESU tells consumers to clear pending bills or face power

Power distribution company Central Electricity Supply Utility (CESU) of Odisha on Thursday told its consumers to clear their pending bills by January 15 or face power disconnection.

Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of CESU, Arun Bothra said of the around 7 lakh domestic consumers, 1.10 lakh have paid their pending bills amounting to Rs 21 crore while the remaining bills of Rs 1,971 crore is yet to be received.

He said CESU has identified 11,397 villages for disconnection of power.

The CEO said 413 special squads have been formed to undertake the drive to disconnect power supply to defaulters in 20 divisions in the state from January 16.

Fresh notice had been sent to consumers to clear the pending bills within the stipulated date, he said, adding the state government has assured that pending bills of 5,965 government consumers amounting to Rs 64.35 crore will be cleared by March 31.

"We do not want to disconnect power supply to our consumers but we are left with no option if people continue to default," Bothra said.