Source: Hueiyen News Service
Imphal, August 05 2010:
The State Government with an intention to make its employees clear the monthly bills of electricity usage, has made it mandatory to produce no-due certificates issued by the Electricity Department before collecting their monthly salaries.
This practice though noble has been abused by the Electricity Department.
The officials of the Electricity Department will charge anything between Rs 100 to Rs 200 for issuing a no-due certificate in the name of an employee irrespective of whether the employee has cleared his/her monthly electricity bill or not.
This has made the scheme of compulsory collecting electricity bills from the government employees a farce.
The Chief Minister O Ibobi repeatedly announced that the state incurred around Rs 9 crores annually for buying electricity from other states.
The scheme of producing no-due certificates as introduced by the state government would be serving no useful purpose if the mal-practice in issuing the certificates is not checked in time by the authority concerned.
Instead, it will be converted into one of the many forms of common bribery as practice in all the government departments.