JIND/KAITHAL, OCT 23: It is a mess of his own making. When Om Prakash Chautala told farmers to refrain from paying electricity bills in the '90s, little did he know that it would recoil on him on his return to power. He launched a massive drive last April to recover the dues but the exercise carried out by the Haryana Vidyut Prasaran Nigam (HVPN) and other power utilities has tripped in many parts of rural Haryana.The more problematic are the villages where defaulters outnumber the payees. And proving to be the most difficult are the INLD supporters - the stronger the supporter, the harder to nail. Take the case of Jagdish Surta of Ramrai (Behan) village in Jind district - he swears by Chautala but would not listen to his leader when it comes to power.Surta has not paid his electricity bills for the past six years. Nor does he intend paying the dues running into Rs 2 lakh. ``We did not pay our bills because when Chautala came to Igrah village five years ago, he told us that he would waive the dues on his return to power. If he has gone back on his word now, it is not my fault. Let him go to the same spot and tell us we have to pay,'' the thirty-something farmer insists.In his village, there are about 550 others like him with their total outstanding crossing the Rs 1-crore mark. ``This is not the only defaulting village in the district. There are at least 45 to 50 other equally notorious villages, which have piled domestic and farm power dues of a staggering Rs 100 crore,'' admits Superintending Engineer (Power) J S Dahiya.The farmers, who eagerly awaited the INLD chief's return to power, do not seem to be in a mood to give in easily. ``Chautala had promised to write off our dues,'' is the refrain in this village. Not that the power utilities have not tried to recover the dues through relaxations, but it has not worked. The dues recovered by the utilities in the last six months stand a paltry Rs 14 crore.Says Superintendent of Police (SP) Rajpal Singh, who has been actively involved in the recovery drive: ``We have achieved some success in convincing the defaulters in a large number of villages that they will have to pay if they want quality power. The real problems are the 30-odd villages where defaulters completely outnumber the payees and refuse to clear their dues.''Worse, the disconnection threats have also failed to have any impact because whenever the authorities try to snap connections of the defaulters, the farmers take to the streets and damage government property. ``We will not let anyone disconnect power supply. When Bansi Lal tried this, there was a crossfire,'' says Dalbir Singh of Bibipur village.The story is no different in the neighbouring Kaithal district, with only a slight variation in the number of defaulters. The district has more than 15,000 habitual defaulters in about 40 villages. The government, however, is eager not to spare them. They started the exercise by persuading the farmers and giving them relaxations such as waiver of surcharge and staggered payments and these have worked quite well in a large number of villages.There are villages which are resisting payment of dues, but the government is determined to carry the exercise to its logical end. ``The Chief Minister has made it very clear that if a consumer does not pay, he will not get power supply,'' said an official.
