Times of India: Mumbai: Thursday, 08 May 2014.
The fear of
not being prompt in paying pending power bills despite being part of the
government seems to be haunting even ministers in Maharashtra. The
anti-corruption crusade, which is at the centre of the country's politics, is
probably forcing even the ministers to be morally and ethically right.
Information
obtained under the Right to Information (RTI) Act by activist Chetan Kothari
has revealed that the electricity bill amounts unpaid for ministers' bungalows
was reducing progressively over the last three years.
The reason:
Regular RTI queries filed have been exposing pending dues, which used to run
into crores a few years back. Despite dues being the matter of 'book
adjustments' within government departments (the Public Works Department and
Brihanmumbai Electric Supply & Transport), the delay by ministers was in
sharp contrast with what they usually expected from regular consumers in
general. In fact, regular consumers are fined for late payments, but ministers
used to spared from this being occupants of government bungalows.
Kothari said
the dues pending against 29 ministerial bungalows are now a few lakhs. The data
obtained from the PWD, which maintains these bungalows, mostly at Malabar Hill,
revealed that the total amount payable by these bungalows in April 2014 was
only around Rs 30 lakh, against Rs 62.41 lakh in March 2013 and Rs 1.28 crore
in May 2012. Of these payable amounts, around 92-95% was only against pending
arrears of last unpaid bills.
Chief
minister Prithviraj Chavan's bungalow Varsha had a pending payable amount of Rs
12.75 lakh in May 2012, but it came down to Rs 6.64 lakh in March 2013 and in
April 2014, Rs 2.65 lakh.
In the case
of Ramtek, the official residence of PWD minister Chhagan Bhujbal, the dues
have fallen from Rs 12.02 lakh in May 2012 to Rs 2.06 lakh in April. At
Satpuda, the official residence of MSRDC minister Jaydatta Kshirsagar, the Rs
11.05 lakh pending bill in 2012 came down to Rs 7.84 lakh in 2013 and now is
around Rs 4.28 lakh. Revenue minister Balasaheb Thorat's official residence
Sevasadan, the governor's bungalow and many other residences are no exception.
A senior PWD
engineer admitted that stringent monitoring of billing, prompt payments, and
thus reduction in delayed payment and extra charges resulted in reduction in
overall billing and dues. "Billing was not being monitored properly. Even
bills of servant quarters around used to be attached to those of the bungalows.
Steps to check consumption are also being taken, like solar fittings, LED
lighting, creating awareness among bungalow staff, and streamlining of the
power network. The process is on, and we hope to reduce the amount," he
added, admitting the effect of TOI's sustained campaign, with the help of RTI
over the issue, for three years.
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