Lambasting the J&K govt for disconnecting the power supplies to poor, indigent, BPL masses for failure to pay their nominal bills, Mr Harsh Dev Singh, former Minister, today questioned the non-initiation of action against Ex-Ministers/MLAs owing millions of rupees to the power Deptt as dues of power consumed by them during the last several years. He said that the RTI reply received by him had revealed that the majority of Ex-Ministers and MLAs who continued to occupy Estates mansions and ministerial bungalows had neither paid the rent for the use of govt accommodation nor had they paid the bills for power consumed by them which ran in several lacs in individual cases.
Mr Harsh Dev Singh divulged that the RTI reply stated that VIP Kothi No.7 was occupied by an MLA who owed Rs. 38,62,852 to the govt as power dues as of 1st October 2021. Likewise, it stated that Mr Chander Parkash Ganga owed Rs. 2,74,565 as on the said date. The power dues of various other Ex-Ministers/MLAs for the Estates bungalows held by them as of 1st October 2021 G.H Lone Rs. 306,544; were Bungalow No.3 wazarat road occupied by Hon’ble MOS (name not mentioned in RTI reply)-Rs. 481368; Zulfikar Ali Minister Rs. 26,51,967; Advisor K.K Sharma Kothi No.3-Rs. 4,81,368; VIP Kothi No.8 Hon’ble MLA (name not given)-Rs. 2,89,644; Kavinder Gupta 4-SPL, Ex-Deputy CM-Rs. 21,91,223; Sunil Kumar 14-SPL, Minister-Rs. 8,38,182; Apni Party office Gandhi Nagar-Rs. 1,44,203; and so forth
Mr Singh said that with huge power bills outstanding against these and other Ex-Ministers/MLAs and top bureaucrats, the govt seemed to have been granted immunity from penal action for power theft because of the power and influence wielded by them. And contrarily, the poor and uninfluential were being targeted and punished despite their nominal outstanding, deplored Harsh.
Further describing the repeated statements of J&K BJP President of free power and water supply and waving off the previous bills as ridiculous, Mr Singh said that while the powerful and influential and those owing allegiance to BJP seemed to have been already exempted from payment of such bills, it was only the marginalized sections that were being harassed and persecuted in the saffron rule.
