Bhubaneswar: The Cesu CEO, Arun Bothra, Thursday said that the power supply line to the power bill defaulters would be snapped from January 16 if dues not cleared by January 15.

Bothra told a presser that Cesu has formed 413 special squads to disconnect power supply to the defaulting consumers.

The CEO said that out of the 9 lakh defaulters 1.10 consumers have cleared their dues by now. Out of the total Rs 1971 crore arrears only Rs 21 crore has been received. The drive will be against the remaining 5.90 lakh consumers. He said the special squad will visit 11,397 villages to snap the power supply to the defaulting consumers. According to him, 5965 government offices and institutions have defaulted Rs 64.37 crore .

“The squad operation will be held on 1643 routes covering all the sections and sub divisions under 20 electrical divisions of cesu area of operation in the districts of Cuttack , Jagatsinghpur , Kendrapara, Dhenkanal , Angul , Puri , Khordha , Nayagarh and part of , Jajpur, ” said Bothra. “To cover the rural area, 413 numbers of special squads will operate in 11,397 villages and on an average a squad will cover 3 to 4 villages in a day”, he added.
In the mean time CESU has issued disconnection notices to 8.36 lakh Domestic consumers and 59,190 Commercial consumers for arrear amounts Rs 1251 crores and Rs 243 crores respectively. The government of Odisha has also decided to make all the department arrear free in this current fiscal. In response to issue of DC notices from 20.12.2019 through SMS and physical delivery, 1.10 lakh consumers have already paid arrear amount of Rs 21 crores.