MP Assembly winter session: Din in House over ‘hefty’ electricity bills to consumers

Bhopal(Madhya Pradesh): Alleging that exorbitant electricity bills are being issued to consumers, the main Opposition Congress on Tuesday created din in the House saying that even the people sans electricity connections were handed out bills.

Through the Call Attention Motion, Congress MLA PC Sharma raised the issue of hefty power bills being issued to residents of ward no 26 of Bhopal. The Congress leader claimed that electricity bills amounting to Rs 25,000 - Rs 30,000 were handed out to the consumers in ward.

Citing an example, the MLA said that a resident Seema Rathod doesn’t have any electricity connection in her name but she has received a bill of Rs 63,000. Sharma demanded adjustment of the electricity bills.

Replying to the motion, minister for energy Pradhuman Singh Tomar said that colonies at ward no 26 were illegal and temporary electricity connections have been provided to the residents. The House , however, plunged into din as Congress MLAs took strong objection to the minister’s reply and vociferously opposed  it.  Amidst chaos, Tomar said that out of 1. 22 crore consumers, power at Rs 100 for 100 units is provided to around 90 lakh consumers.

Speaker asks minister to look into the issue: Taking a note of the issue, the State Assembly Speaker Girish Gautam instructed minister for energy Pradhuman Singh Tomar to probe all such cases wherein bills have been served despite no electricity connection and cancel them after physical verification. The Speaker further said that if any common man lodges a complaint regarding electricity bill, it should be taken up and looked into.The minister assured to solve all the complaints.