Bhojpur, August 30

Though the Nepal Electricity Authority, acting upon the directive of the Energy minister, has started to cut power to customers failing to clear their electricity bills, Bhojpur Municipality still has not paid its dues for street lights.

Non-payment of bills by the municipality has made mockery of the NEA’s drive.

NEA Bhojpur Distribution Centre said Bhojpur Municipality had stopped paying electricity bills of street lights that have been installed in the name of Bhojpur VDC and Taksar VDC.

According to the distribution centre, the municipality needs to pay Rs 9,000 to NEA each month. But, the municipality has not cleared its power dues for a long time now.

The street lights were installed three years ago. “The municipality has yet to clear power bills for the last two years,” said accountant at the distribution centre, Dinesh Chapagain.

The municipality owes Rs 252,900 to NEA. He said the municipality was dilly-dallying in clearing dues despite repeated written reminders.

Locals have condemned the municipality’s negligence in paying dues. “We had the facility of street lights when we were a VDC.

Now that the VDC has become a municipality, we are most likely to lose electricity due to the municipality’s negligence,” Sanjiv Karki, a local said.

Another local Rama Ghimire complained that they were deprived of the facilities they had been receiving before the VDC was transformed into a municipality.

NEA distribution centre has been cutting power supply to customers failing to pay electricity dues of up to two months.