Jashore Municipality has an electricity bill of Tk 20 crore from West Zone Power Distribution Company (WZPDCL), which the company does not have the capacity to pay. Despite receiving monthly letters from WZPDCL to collect the arrears a decade and a half ago, the municipality is unable to pay it. No one has a good answer as to why such a huge amount of electricity bill is outstanding.
Jashore Municipality is one of the first-class municipalities in the country, established in 1864. The municipality, which has an area of ​​14.72 square kilometers (proposed 22.320 square kilometers), has a population of 2 lakh 86 thousand 163 people according to the 2021 census. However, according to the holding assessment, the population is 4,47,914.
This municipality has 29 water pump houses, 6 water over tanks, 15,180 water line connections, 500 star tube wells, and 55 water taps on the road. The daily water demand is 27,28,000 liters.
Against the demand, water is supplied daily through 213.5 kilometers of water pipelines in 12 hours out of 24 hours a day. There are 9,455 street lights. There are 3 sweeper colonies.
The municipality takes electricity supply from West Zone Power Distribution Company (WZPDCL) Division 1 and 2 for water supply, street lights, and sweeper colonies.
Jashore Municipality has an outstanding debt of Tk 20 crore to WZPDCL. Of this, the WZPDCL-1 division owes 10 crore 15 lakh taka, and the WZPDCL-2 division owes 9 crore 54 lakh taka.
According to the relevant sources, 30 meters of street lights and 26 meters of pumps were digitized in 2017. At present, electricity is supplied to these prepaid meters. There is no possibility of electricity bills remaining outstanding in prepaid meters. The entire outstanding bill is from the manual meter era. After the introduction of prepaid meters, no more bills have become outstanding.
Again, the previous outstanding electricity bill has not been paid. WZPDCL has been repeatedly urging to collect the outstanding. But the municipality is not taking any effective initiative.
Rafiqul Hasan, Administrator (Deputy Secretary) of Jashore Municipality, said, “This outstanding electricity bill is from a long time ago. He does not know why such a huge amount of money was outstanding at that time. The municipality does not have the capacity to pay the huge amount of outstanding electricity bills now. However, efforts are being made to pay the dues.
On Thursday morning, this reporter spoke to GM Mahmud Pradhan, Executive Engineer of WZPDCL Sales and Distribution Division-2, at his office. He said that the outstanding bills to the municipality date back to before it separated from PDB and became a company in 2007. WZPDCL is sending a letter to the municipality every month to pay the dues. He cannot say why the electricity bills remained outstanding then. However, they have been assured that the municipality is taking initiatives to pay the dues very recently.