Prepaid meters will be set up in government offices to address the problem of dues that remain stuck with various departments for officials' failure to pay power bills on time.

The decision was taken at a meeting chaired by chief secretary Anjani Kumar Singh.

The meters will be installed in 2,000 government offices to start with. The North Bihar Power Distribution Company Limited and South Bihar Power Distribution Company Limited have been asked to start work at the earliest.

A senior official in the Bihar State Power Holding Company told The Telegraph that the decision was aimed at addressing the problem of huge dues that pile up with various government departments because of alleged laxity of the officers responsible for the job to ensure timely payment of electricity bills.

According to official records updated till June 1 this year, the South Bihar Power Distribution Company is owed Rs 364.83 crore from different government departments while its north Bihar counterpart has not yet been paid Rs 238.38 crore.

The urban development department owes the most - Rs 266.67 crore in south Bihar and Rs 114.55 crore in north Bihar.

"The outstanding amount against the various departments is not related to just one office. Rather it reflects dues of all the offices related to the department across the state. That is why the total outstanding amount is so huge," said a power company official closely associated with the monitoring of financial issues.

Installation of the prepaid meters, another official said, would put the onus of recharging the meters on time on the officers concerned to ensure the power connection is not snapped. The officer responsible - likely the head of a department or a section - would have to make advance payments to recharge the meters and once units of power worth the amount paid is consumed, the connection would be snapped.

"One needs to handle the government offices delicately. A sudden snap of power lines because of dues would ultimately hamper functioning of the office, which, in turn, would affect the various works," the official said, adding that the biggest problem arose with educational institutions as if the power snaps, the students are hit for no fault of theirs.

The official said the power distribution companies have begun the process to identify the 2,000 offices in which the meters would be set up.

"We intend to complete the meter installation work in 2,000 government offices in the current fiscal as one of our main goals is to make the power companies less dependent on government help through means of better revenue generation," said the official.