Rural development and panchayat raj minister K S Eshwarappa on Thursday said that the gram panchayats (GPs) owed Rs 4,229 crore to electricity supply companies.
He was speaking at a function to launch the “e-Belaku” platform to help the panchayats easily repay dues online. The platform aims to streamline electricity consumption in rural areas. The online platform has been developed in coordination with Bescom.
“The GPs have kept the dues pending in spite of the timely release of funds from the government. As of date, GPs owe Escoms Rs 4,229 crore. While the government has already directed the GPs to clear dues, several of them have failed to do so,” he said.
“There are several lacunae on the part of the Escom's too. In several panchayats, electricity meters have not been installed and in some places, the meters do not function properly. Even in places with no meters, bills are being generated,” he said.
In other instances, the bills were being generated for defunct drinking water units, Eshwarappa added.
Taking all these issues into consideration, the RDPR department has launched “e-Belaku” through which the panchayats can pay their dues online.
The platform will also help digitally document electricity meters and defunct water units or street lights. Panchayats will be able to log in to the portal and update details on these infrastructure issues. To begin with, this will be open for GPs under Bescom limits, according to a press release.
The department also launched an updated 2.0 version of the ‘Gandhi Sakshi Kayaka’ portal, rectifying technical lacunae in the previous version.
The website will help get real-time information about projects taken up by the department, which will help in ensuring that there is no duplication of projects. This will also be helpful to pay contractors their dues on time, added the release.
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