Zilla Parishads asked to clear power bill dues for schools from own fund
   Date :04-Dec-2020

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Staff Reporter :
 
School Education Department of State Government has asked all the Zilla Parishads (ZPs) in Maharashtra to clear electricity bill dues for their schools from their own fund. Accordingly, 34 ZPs will have to pay Rs 5.8863 crore to Maharashtra State Electricity Distribution Company Limited (MSEDCL) as against power bill dues in case of 10,671 schools. As far as Vidarbha region is concerned, there are 2,031 such schools. The power supply to these schools is in ‘permanently disconnected’ category.
 
Apart from the bill for schools in this category, MSEDCL has sent ‘current bills’ of Rs 6.084 crore to ZP schools in the State. The total amount, thus, to be paid by ZP schools to MSEDCL is Rs 11.9703 crore. Already, MSEDCL has been drawing flak over allegations of high power bills for lockdown period. It developed into a political war of words. Against this backdrop, the School Education Department’s latest directive is being viewed as an effort to add to the kitty of MSEDCL. As per the directives issued on Thursday, ZPs in the State have been asked to clear the power bill dues of Rs 5.8863 crore from ‘Sadil’ aid. ‘Sadil’ aid is an amount which is four per cent of the salary expenditure for the previous year. From this aid, ZPs have been asked to clear the power bill dues with the limit of Rs 1,000 per school per month.
 
The issue of power bill dues with ZP schools in the State had come up for discussion during a meeting held in presence of Chief Minister and Deputy Chief Minister. It was decided in the meeting to discuss the matter further with Secretary of Energy Department, and ZP schools were directed to clear the dues in lumpsum. Among 34 districts in State, Beed has the highest dues of power bills for ZP schools with amount of Rs 83.66 lakh. Beed is followed by Jalna with dues of Rs 66.05 lakh, Pune with dues of Rs 62 lakh, Aurangabad with dues of Rs 48 lakh.
 
This is very surprising, given the fact that the entire Vidarbha region’s ZP schools in ‘permanently disconnected’ category have collective dues of Rs 49.48 lakh only. Each of the ‘top four’ districts mentioned above have dues that almost equal the dues for entire Vidarbha region.