1.5k factory owners in Kanpur served notice to pay decade-old power bills

KANPUR As many as 1,518 industrialists have received recovery certificates from Kanpur Electricity Supply Company (KESCo). The ‘unpaid’ electricity bills for which RCs have been issued are 20-to-40 years old.

The KESCo teams, accompanied by tehsil employees, issued notices to factories in Dada Nagar and Panki industrial estates to recover the pending power dues. In the process, an official team even disconnected the electricity of a factory that had a standing power bill of ₹1.24 lakh. It was pending for 24 years.

Vijay Kapoor, chairman of Dada Nagar industrial estate, said, “Is it not surprising that some of the bills are 40 years old? What was the electricity company doing all these years. The industrialists are being persecuted and misbehaved with. If the harassment goes on, owners will have to shut factories.” The RCs issued for unpaid dues range between ₹1.2 lakh and ₹5 lakh for the sanctioned load of 1 KW or 2 KW, added Kapoor.