While Banaram and Meera Devi, whose power connections were restored by activist Arvind Kejriwal this past weekend, have been slapped with legal notices by the power distribution companies, a large number of former and sitting Members of Parliament continue to enjoy uninterrupted power supply despite not paying their electricity bills running into crores.
According to documents accessed through the Right to Information Act, the unpaid electricity bills of former and sitting MPs in the New Delhi Municipal Council area run into a whopping Rs. 6.27 crore. As many as 3,335 former and sitting MPs have not paid their power bills belonging to the October 2011 billing cycle, as per the information given to RTI activist Subhash Chandra Agrawal by the Union Urban Development Ministry.
Besides defaulting on their power bills, the former and sitting MPs also owe the Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Limited Rs. 7.29 crore in dues, according to an RTI reply from MTNL. The outstanding phone bill belongs to usage beyond the cap of 1,50,000 free calls per year the MPs are entitled to. The MTNL said action was being initiated for recovery of the dues “as per rules”.
Mr. Agrawal said political rulers have no moral right to oppose Mr. Kejriwal’s campaign to restore electricity connections of the common citizens. Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit should order instant disconnection of supply to the defaulting MPs and recover outstanding amounts, he said.
