Bhubaneswar, April 8: The state government decision to snap power supplies to houses or encroached government plots has met with a legal hurdle.
Sources said, in a bid to evict people from encroached land, the state government has been planning to discontinue power supply to such land which belonged to government.
A high-level meeting, presided over by Chief Secretary GC Pati Wednesday, was informed that the government cannot go ahead with its plan, as the Orissa High Court is hearing a petition in this connection.
The court has directed the government not to disconnect power supply, according to sources.
‘‘As per the directions of the High Court, we cannot stop power supply to consumers, if the residents fulfil all government norms. So, in this case we cannot do it,” energy secretary Suresh Mohapatra told reports here.
He further said, “We are collecting indemnity bonds (I-bonds) while providing new connections to such plots. In I-bonds, it was written that they cannot use electricity bills to claim anything like resident certificate for the plot.”
Review petition with OERC soon
The state government Wednesday said it would file a review petition with the Orissa Electricity Regulatory Commission (OERC) seeking withdrawal of the decision of 40 paise per unit tariff hike for agriculture.
“We are preparing the draft petition and it will be filed before the OERC very soon,” energy secretary Suresh Mohapatra said here.
The move to file a review petition with OERC came after the government drew considerable flak from several quarters, including the farmers and opposition parties, for increasing the power tariff.
Notably, the OERC had announced 20 paise per unit hike for domestic consumers and 40 paise for farm sector in the third week of March this year. The commission had also announced that beneficiaries of Kutir Jyoti Yojana would pay Rs 80 against Rs 65 per month.