No power at town hall over dues, fest held with help of generators

Jodhpur: The five-day annual drama festival by the National School of Drama ‘Bharat Rang Mahotsav’ concluded on Friday. However, the event in the city town hall was organised with the support of generators as power to the hall has been discontinued for the last two months. The discom severed electric connection of the town hall as it failed to pay an outstanding bill of Rs 70 lakh which has been pending since September 2023. Under control of the Sangeet Natak Academy, the town hall had been renovated and modernised by the JDA at an expenditure of Rs. 11.50 crore and was handed over to the academy on September 13 last year. Interestingly neither JDA nor the academy is willing to deposit this outstanding electricity bill, which led the DISCOM to disconnect the power supply to the hall.Jodhpur Development Authority (JDA) executive engineer Sandep Parihar said that since it has been handed over to the academy, they have to pay this bill. “They have also organised programs in the town hall since we handed the building to them. We can contribute till that date but not beyond that," he said.TOI tried to contact the secretary of the academy, but he could not be contacted. However, sources said that he has assured to look into the matter and resolve it. Apart from the town hall, the DISCOM has also discontinued the power supply tof Barkatullah Khan Stadium due to an outstanding bill of Rs 80 lakh. JDA had handed over its possession to the Rajasthan Cricket Association (RCA) following an MoU between them. The RCA has since organised cricket tournaments but never deposited its electric bill, which has been pending since January 2023.Superintending engineer (city) of DISCOM OP Suthar said that 3 notices have been served to the JDA for the bill but it has not yet been paid. On the other hand, JDA passed these notices to the RCA, which has not responded on the issue either, which finally led the DISCOM to disconnect the electricity of the stadium in December last year.According to Suthar, not only these two institutions, but there are huge outstanding electricity bills on MDMA Hospital, PHED, Municipal Corporations (south and north) and many other government offices. “MDMA Hospital, PHED and municipal corporations alone have over Rs 8 crore bills pending, but we cannot disconnect their electric connections as they are under the essential services," Suthar said.