The Central Electricity Supply Utility (Cesu) began its power disconnection drive over nonpayment of bills from Khordha district on Thursday.
As many as 39 squads formed by the power utility firm carried out the disconnection drive against the defaulting consumers in the district.
Electricity connection was snapped to 53 commercial establishments that had failed to deposit bills following several notices.
The Cesu informed that electricity supply to 800 defaulting consumers was disconnected and about Rs 3 crore of pending power bills was collected on the day.
However, during the drive, five members of a squad and their vehicle were detained by locals of Gurujanga village in Khordha while they were trying to disconnect electricity supply of a betel shopkeeper, who has been charged of defaulting on power bill of around Rs 21,000. The massive power disconnection drive would be carried out in nine districts in a phased manner.
Earlier, the Cesu had announced to take action against the commercial and domestic consumers over a total pending bill of Rs 1,971 crore by the end of November 2019.
As many as 413 squads have been formed to carry out the power disconnection exercise in nine coastal districts under the jurisdiction of Cesu.
As per the plan, the Cesu would terminate power supply to both commercial and domestic consumers who have withheld the payment deliberately.
