Imphal, December 13 2008: EVEN IF state electricity department used to collect the electric bills from Imphal town, places beyond its periphery are lying 'untouched' due to the volatile law and order situation.

The electricity employees have stayed away from the regular revenue drive in villages beyond Imphal's periphery areas.

Take villages under Manipur's Imphal east and west districts as an example.

"Even if we know, we're unable to go and collect the bills from villages like Tiger Camp, Uyumpok, Sagolmang and Pukhao areas etc", a section officer of electricity department posted in Imphal east said.

Not to speak of the consumers but the villagers under Sagolmang sub-division failed to pay their electric bills but the village authorities.

Pukhao Laipham having around 60 households have only about 20 consumers but the entire village enjoys the power supply.

Thus the concerned village authority is compelled to pay the village bills.

Other neighboring villages like Khewa company, Sagolmang and Wakhong also have a similar stories.

When asked, a villager who need regular power for electrical works said , "even after our contribution failed to meet the demand, we used to sell the village properties such as hill range having the potential of firewood or a portion of paddy field to meet the requirement".

Even though the actual figure of the bill amount reached Rs 9 lakhs it has been somehow negotiated at Rs 90,000."The last payment was made 6/7 months back and since then no official turned up for any enquiry.

There's no complain at all" another villager on the condition of anonymity told this reporter recently.

Acknowledging this, the Section Officer who looks after around 20 villages in Manipur's Imphal east district said,"I think every village must be having pending bills of Rs 7 to 8 lakhs each in average." But we couldn't go and collect it in view of the prevailing law and order situation, who will guard us? Even if they provides security, we feel insecure again as anything can happened anytime,he felt.

Similarly electricity officials posted under IED 2 (Imphal Electricity Division number 2) which covers a vast area of Imphal west district having more than 25,000 consumers,are also facing a similar problem.

"Our staffs couldn't go beyond Lamshang area for collecting electric bills due to the ongoing situation" a senior engineer of the division echoed, "the bills which were collected regularly are from the core area of the town".

According to official sources from commercial section of the power department,though Manipur is getting only about Rs 1.8 crores in average every monthly from it's 1.81 lakh consumers as revenue, it has been spending Rs 9.98 crores every month in buying power from outside the state.

Interestingly the department has so far collected a sum of Rs 12.41 crores till September 2008.Besides the total approximate deficit amount is about Rs 245 crores,the source added.

The four valley districts consumes 70 to 80 percent of the total power supply while the remaining goes to hills.

It's a fact that Manipur faced acute power supply during December and January every year.

Presently the state is getting only about 50 to 60 MW in the day time while 80-90 MW in the night against the requirement of 150 MW.

Power scenario in Manipur is so bad that even the residents in the capital Imphal gets 7 to 8 hours every alternate days.In other words non-payment of the electric bills also become a major factor for regular load shedding and erratic power supply.

"You see,we've been facing load-shedding as a regular affair since the past many years and situation may be worse in future" a senior official of the department's transmission sector opined.

Thus it's the need of the hour to figure out the comprehensive plans to deal the issue effectively.

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