Jalandhar, April 6: The government schools of Punjab have been asked to transfer the connections of their electricity meters to the names of respective village panchayats, which are willing to pay the power bills. This as education department does not have special grants to pay the bills.
The Director Public Instructions (Secondary Education), Punjab, has issued a letter regarding this to all the district education officers and school heads. The schools received the letters on Thursday.
According to the Punjab State Power Corporation Limited (PSPCL), the bills worth crores against the government schools have been lying pending, but the state government has no money to pay. A senior officer said that they had issued notices to the schools several times.
It is mentioned in the letter that education department does not have special grants to pay the bills. “The village panchayats are happy with the schools following introduction of several positive steps by the education departments and they are ready to pay the power bills,” the letter read.
The letter added that village panchayats are ready to solve the problem in the interest of the students and keeping this in view the power meters must be transferred to their name, to avoid any misunderstanding during audit.
The principal of a government senior secondary school in Jalandhar said that their bill was pending for around a year and if they didn’t pay it, the electricity supply would be disconnected. “If panchayats are ready to pay the bill, we have no problem to transfer the connection,” he said.
If the power department disconnects the supply, specially when summer is setting in, children will have to attend classes without fan. A senior PSPCL officer said that they are compiling the figures of pending bills of all government departments, not only the schools.
Source Tribune India
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