 |
| Kalimpong Town Hall has no electricity |
Sub-divisional Cultural and Information department which shoulders the management of the hall has said the electricity bills of over lakh rupees are due but the revenue earned from the hall is not even sufficient to pay for the hall staffs and its maintenance. While the organizers bear electricity charges ranging up to Rs. 500 for a day’s program they now have to spend around Rs. 2000 on generators per day. This has given the organizers an impetus to opt for other halls leading to further decrease in the management’s revenue.
Speaking over the issue Sub-divisional Cultural and Information Officer Mitendra Chettri said the management had been depositing the electricity fees regularly but since the department did not issue the bills regularly this year the problem showed up. He said the electricity department had not issued bills since last May and the management ran short of fund to pay the outstanding bill together for several months. However, he added officials from the concerned departments will soon be called in for meeting to resolve the problem.
On the other hand, electricity department official Sanjiv Agarwal agreed the department had failed to conduct meter reading for nine months and that the outstanding bill for that period is Rs. 1,02,000. He added the electricity department had offered the hall management to pay the sum in six installments but owing to the non-agreement by the management the department decided to cut off the power supply.
EOI
