Bhubaneswar, Feb. 28: A power distribution company has issued notices to state government departments to clear electricity dues totalling Rs 87 crore by March 21. The company has warned that if the departments fail to pay up, their power supply will be snapped.

Chief executive officer of Southern Electricity Supply Company of Odisha Limited (Southco) Suresh Choudhury said: “Despite our repeated pleas, the departments declined to clear dues. As there is no option left, we have issued showcause notices in the public domain.”

“They are consuming power and it’s their duty to clear the dues. We will not bow down to unnecessary pressure exerted by the government departments,” said Choudhury.

Southco dues have touched around Rs 400 crore. Berhampur Municipality alone has to clear dues worth Rs 6 crore. “We have asked them to settle their dues through a one-time settlement scheme. If they fail, we will be forced to snap power to the municipality.”

Boosted by Southco’s move, the other three power companies — the Central Electricity Supply Utility of Odisha (Cesu), Western Electricity Supply Company of Odisha Limited (Wesco) and Northern Electricity Supply Company of Odisha Limited (Nesco) — are planning to serve notices to consumers who have failed to clear their dues. While the Cesu and Wesco managements have finalised their dues, Nesco is yet to chalk out a concrete plan to get back their dues.

Cesu officials said the departments’ dues were hovering around Rs 87 crore. The departments are yet to clear the power dues of Rs 83 crore of Wesco. If all arrears of the power distribution companies are put together in the industrial, commercial and government sectors, it would touch Rs 2,000 crore.

On the other hand, the departments continue to ignore the request of the private distribution companies to clear their power dues.

These departments have emerged as major defaulters with dues of nearly Rs 200 crore. While the biggest defaulter by far is the housing and urban development department with Rs 72 crore still to be paid, the least burdened appears to be the women and child development department with cumulative dues worth Rs 2.42 lakh.

Even the energy department is a defaulter, as it owes Rs 35.65 lakh to the power distribution companies. However, in the majority of the cases the field offices of these departments are at fault.

Senior officials of the energy department said they frequently wrote letters to the departmental secretaries to release money. Even the Odisha Electricity Regulatory Commission had intervened in the matter, a source said.

Energy minister Atanu Sabyasachi Nayak said: “Necessary direction has been issued to collect the pending power dues from the government departments.”

The major defaulters include the housing and urban development, the rural development, the health and family welfare, the school and mass education and the panchayati raj department. Each of these owes more than Rs 10 crore to the distribution companies.