Assam chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Sunday (June 6) instructed the state power department to recover the unpaid electricity bills of government officials directly from their salaries through DDOs.
The chief minister reviewed the functioning of the state power department and its three companies APDCL, AEGCL and APGCL at a meeting held at Janata Bhawan in Guwahati on Sunday.
CM Dr @himantabiswa in presence of Power Minister Sri @BimalBorahbjp reviewed functioning of three power companies ― APDCL, AEGCL & APGCL. The CM issued several instructions and directives during the meeting.
1/5 pic.twitter.com/2KosznDsaR— Chief Minister Assam (@CMOfficeAssam) June 6, 2021
During the meeting, CM Sarma directed the officials to create a proper database with the names and phone numbers of 63 lakh consumers to set up an improved billing system to cut down the losses.
He also asked the department to adopt advanced technology in metering, billing, collection etc like Gujarat to turn the companies into profit-making entities.
Directing the department to prepare a plan for turning the companies into profit-making entities, CM Sarma instructed to immediately set up 500 distribution transformers in the profit-making centre of APDCL.
He also asked for efficient management of all other revenue-earning sources of APDCL.
Instruction was given to put up power meters in a visible place in all commercial establishments in the next 15 days so that everyone can see them.
He also directed the state finance department to issue notification for turning the loans taken by three companies from the state government till March 31, 2021, into partnership shares and payment of dividends against those shares to the government.
Instruction was also issued regarding streamlining the billing and revenue collection of APDCL in the grassroots while identifying the institutions with unpaid power bills so that revenue earning can be boosted.
CM Sarma also asked the department to take necessary steps to recover unpaid bills of government offices at the earliest while directing for making a report with the names, profession etc of all those who have not paid their power bills.
He also instructed to recover the unpaid electricity bills of government officials directly from their salaries through DDOs.
He also said that from now onwards the transfer and posting of APDCL officials must be done based on their performances.
The chief minister further asked APDCL to issue notification to authorise all police stations to register power theft cases since only a few police stations in the state currently possess authority for the same.
CM Sarma also stressed on the need to make all three companies of the power department profit making ventures within next 5 years similar to the power companies in Gujarat.
Power Minister Bimal Bora, Chairman of all 3 power companies V.K. Pipersenia, Principal Secretary to the Chief Minister Samir Kumar Sinha and other senior officers were present in the meeting.
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