KHARGONE: The Western Power distribution company in Khargone district of Madhya Pradesh cut off electricity from five villages after many residents failed to pay their bills.
The five villages have been without electricity and water supply from the past five days in this soaring heat, when the temperature is touching 44 degrees.
The five villages are- Damkhera, Jamanya, Banhoor, Lonara and Kharya Ghat. All of these are located roughly around 35 km from the Khargone district headquarter.
According to an estimate, nearly 10,000 people including elders and children live in these villages.
‘CLEAR DUES FOR ELECTRICITY’
According to Ravikant Ranjan, executive engineer, MP Western Power Distribution Company, most villagers have not yet paid their dues following which three transformers that were installed at Damkhera village have been removed.
“Even if half of the villagers had paid their bills, we would not have taken such a step. We will reinstall the transformers and restore the power supply to all the five villages once the bills are paid,” he said.
The Western Power Distribution Company has also refused to compensate those who have paid their bills. Moreover, the officials feigned ignorance about the resulting disruption in water supply.
“They should not have cut power of those who have already paid their bills and if people were stealing electricity they could have taken a legal recourse than punishing the whole village,” Mandi board member Ganpat Singh said.
The villagers are now contemplating moving to the district headquarter and staging a protest outside the district collectorate soon. “We are already sleeping in the open. So we might as well sleep in front of the office of the district collector,” a villager said.
