The 1.2 lakh new power consumers under Jamshedpur circle who were given power connections under Saubhagya Yojana have not paid power bills. Concerned over the situation,Jharkhand Bijli Vitran Nigam Ltd (JBVNL) have embarked on a drive to take action against them.

According to information while one team of power board officials is holding camps for making aware the new rural consumers to pay power bill, another team is disconnecting power connections from those consumers who are not paying the bills.

In view of falling revenue collection in Jamshedpur electrical circle of the Jharkhand Bijli Vitran Nigam Ltd (JBVNL), the  officials of the electrical circle are holding camps. The camps are aimed at collecting dues.

The camps by the JBVNL officials are being held mainly in rural areas. Under Centre-sponsored Saubhagya Yojana 1.2 lakh additional consumers to existing 2.5 lakh consumers have been provided power connection and these new consumers have failed to deposit their bills. 

The drive to hold camps at the rural areas is aimed mainly at to make up a loss of Rs  3 crores in the revenue collection made in July month.

General manager, JBVNL's Singhbhum electricity supply area board, Arvind Kumar Jamshedpur electrical circle informed that JBVNL earns Rs 62 crores a month as revenue, but last month the collection did not reach its target and this happened despite additional 1.2 lakh consumers have been provided connection to their homes under the Saubhagya Yojana in recent past.  "We are hold camps for collecting power bills form the rural consumers," said Kumar.

The JBVNL general manager pointed out that most of the 1.2 lakh new consumers who were given power connections under Saubhagya Yojana have not paid power bills although many of them were provided connection with meter by December 2018.

Kumar stated that though the rural consumers have been given power connection under Saubhagya Yojana, their power line is being disconnected if they fail to clear the pending power bills.

"These consumers have already started getting  electricity at their home, without taking the aspect of paying the power bills every month. Once such consumers will experience difficulty in running a household without power, they would start paying the power bills. This is the reason that while on the one hand we are making the rural consumers to develop tendency to pay power bills, another set of officials are cutting up connections of the defaulters," said the senior JBVNL official.