SRINAGAR The J&K Power Development Department has decided to flex its muscles to claim its dues and among others, the defaulters include Peoples Conference leader who is set to fight Lok Sabha elections from the Srinagar constituency and a former minister.
The PDD came up Monday with a list of defaulters in the state, threatening them with electricity disconnection while disclosing the names of politicians, top businessmen, telecom firms and security installations, besides the hoi polloi in the list.
The PDD defaulters includes businessman turned politician Irfan Raza Ansari who owes Rs 52,00,019 to the department. Irfan is Peoples Conference nominee for prestigious Srinagar parliamentary constituency. Trumboo Joinery owes Rs 2,33,67,475 and State Tuberculosis division owes Rs 14,40,821. Former PDP minister Asiea Naqash also owes Rs 13,66,999 to the department.
While the security of MLA from Hazratbal owes Rs 29,80,024, the Deputy GM JKPCC owes Rs 1,64,32,350. Golf course Pahalgam owes Rs 2,20,01,620 and SP Kulgam for police post Behibagh owes Rs 22,99,310. Interestingly Shankaracharya Mandir of Srinagar also figures among the list of defaulters. The hilltop temple owes Rs 60,96,988 to the PDD.
Others include Airtel, BSNL, Reliance Jio Infocomm, Reliance Communications with their outstanding power dues running in lakhs of rupees, discloses the public notice released for press.
The notice also names Hotel Kahkashan, which has been housing security forces for the past three decades, as the biggest defaulter with an outstanding bill of Rs 3.78 crores.
Ikhwan hotel, which has been with the CRPF since 1990s, has an outstanding power bill of Rs 2.77 crore while Shiraz Cinema, another building under the occupation of security forces for long, owes a sum of Rs 1.30 crore to PDD.
According to the public notice, Mir Steel Rolling Mills in Pulwama and Trumboo Joinery Mills are two of the biggest defaulters among the business houses, having outstanding sums of Rs 2.61 crore and Rs 2.33 crores respectively.
Three individual connections registered in the names of Abdul Salam, Ghulam Qadir and Khazir Mohammad in Nishaat and Dalgate areas of the city have outstanding dues of Rs 2.08 crore, Rs 2.1 crore and Rs 1.48 crore respectively.
Some of the government departments and public sector undertakings too have emerged as big defaulters.
Mosques and shrines too have been listed among the defaulters with famous Shankaracharya temple in the Zabarwan hills owing the PDD an amount of Rs 61 lakh.
PDD officials said the total outstanding amount against those named in the publicised list is around Rs 100 crore in Kashmir division only.
“This is the list of only those who have an amount of Rs 10 lakh or more outstanding against them. There are hundreds of other consumers who have lesser amounts pending against them,” said a senior PDD official.
Follow this link to join our WhatsApp group: Join Now
Be Part of Quality Journalism |
Quality journalism takes a lot of time, money and hard work to produce and despite all the hardships we still do it. Our reporters and editors are working overtime in Kashmir and beyond to cover what you care about, break big stories, and expose injustices that can change lives. Today more people are reading Kashmir Observer than ever, but only a handful are paying while advertising revenues are falling fast. |
| ACT NOW |
| MONTHLY | Rs 100 |  |
| YEARLY | Rs 1000 | |
| LIFETIME | Rs 10000 | |
