The truth about power dues in Siddipet, Gajwel

Most of the power dues in the Siddipet circle under which Siddipet, Gajwel and Husnabad constituencies fall were of government departments

Hyderabad: Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy had on Thursday said in the Assembly that outstanding power bills were highest in Siddipet, Gajwel and Hyderabad South and asked Siddipet MLA T Harish Rao, Gajwel MLA and former Chief Minister, K Chandrasekhar Rao and AIMIM floor leader Akbaruddin Owaisi to take the responsibility of clearing the power bill dues in their constituencies.

According to him, Siddipet had arrears of 61.7 percent; Gajwel had arrears of 50.29 percent and Hyderabad South had dues of 43 percent.

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However, according to sources, most of the power dues in the Siddipet circle under which Siddipet, Gajwel and Husnabad constituencies fall were of government departments, and these had to be paid by the State government with local MLAs having no role in it. In fact, it was found that 97.8 percent of the electricity arrears in Siddipet Circle (District) were only related to irrigation and government offices.

The amount of electricity dues in Siddipet Circle (District) was Rs.1984.31 crore. Arrears related to Irrigation, Government Offices were Rs.1938 crore, which means that these two categories of arrears account for 87.7 percent of the total arrears. According to the data with regard to due furnished by Discoms only Rs.7.03 crore were due from household consumers and its percentage was only 0.35 percent of the total dues.

Going through the statistics available with the government only Rs.13.83 crore were related to individual consumers and the remaining amount has to be paid by the government.

Sources said the reservoirs like Ranganayaka Sagar, Mallanna Sagar, and Kondapochamma Sagar related to irrigation in Siddipet district and the lifts associated with them were huge due to which the arrears of the irrigation department touched Rs.1019 crore. The government offices arrears in the district were to a tune of Rs.919 crore.

With Siddipet and Gajwel constituencies falling under the Siddipet Circle, the figures show that the claim that MLAs should ensure payment of arrears was not exactly in good taste.