JK power deptt flexes muscle to recover dues from high and mighty defaulters

Virtually left "powerless" in face of defaults worth lakhs and crores of rupees by its powerful energy consumers, the J&K Power Development Department has decided to flex its muscles to claim its dues.

The PDD came up Monday with a list of its defaulters in the state, threatening them with electricity disconnection while disclosing the names of politicians, top businessmen, telecom firms and security installations, besides the hoi polloi in the list.

The PDD defaulters include Airtel, BSNL, Reliance Jio Infocomm, Reliance Communications, with their outstanding power dues running in lakhs of rupees, discloses the public notice published in leading dailies Monday.

The notice names Hotel Kahkashan, which has been housing security forces for the past three decades, as the biggest defaulter with an outstanding bill of Rs 3.78 crores.

Ikhwan hotel, which has been with the CRPF since 1990s, has an outstanding power bill of Rs 2.77 crore while Shiraz Cinema, another building under the occupation of security forces for long, owes a sum of Rs 1.30 crore to PDD.

According to the public notice, Mir Steel Rolling Mills in Pulwama and Trumboo Joinery Mills are two of the biggest defaulters among the business houses, having outstanding sums of Rs 2.61 crore and Rs 2.33 crores respectively.

Three individual connections registered in the names of Abdul Salam, Ghulam Qadir and Khazir Mohammad in Nishaat and Dalgate areas of the city have outstanding dues of Rs 2.08 crore, Rs 2.1 crore and Rs 1.48 crore respectively.

A firm registered in the name of businessman-turned-politician Irfan Ansari, who joined Peoples Conference led by Sajad Gani Lone recently, has been shown as defaulting on payment of energy bill of Rs 52 lakh.

PDP leader and former Hazratbal MLA Aasiya Naqash has an outstanding amount of Rs 13.66 lakh as electricity bill at her residence and a sum of Rs 29.80 lakh against her security installations.

Some of the government departments and public sector undertakings too have emerged as big defaulters.

Mosques and shrines too have been listed among the defaulters with famous Shankaracharya temple in the Zabarwan hills owing the PDD an amount of Rs 61 lakh.

PDD officials said the total outstanding amount against those named in the publicised list is around Rs 100 crore in Kashmir division only.

"This is the list of only those who have an amount of Rs 10 lakh or more outstanding against them. There are hundreds of other consumers who have lesser amounts pending against them," said a senior PDD official.