UP ‘avenger’ leaves police ‘powerless’

AGRA: A UP power corporation electrician disconnected the power supply of a police station after a sub-inspector posted there issued a Rs 500 ticket to him for not wearing a helmet while riding a two-wheeler on Tuesday evening. The cops at Linepar police station remained without electricity for close to four hours before senior police officials approached power corporation officials and power was restored.
“I was returning to the local power station on a motorcycle when sub-inspector Ramesh Chandra stopped me and issued a Rs 500 challan for not wearing helmet.I made him to talk to the junior engineer, who requested him to exempt me, but he did not listen to him,” Srinivas told TOI.
“The SI and his associates started explaining traffic rules and in return I explained to them the rules and penalty for not paying power bill on time. The police station had a pending bill of Rs 6.6 lakh so I disconnected the power to the police station,” said Srinivas.
Srinivas disconnected a police station’s power supply after being issued a Rs 500 challan
‘UP thana has not paid a single paisa since 2016’
Several reminders were sent to the police station for pending bills. On Wednesday, we conducted a re-verification of the pending amount against Linepar police station and found the outstanding had mounted to Rs 7 lakh. They haven’t paid a single paisa since 2016,” said Firozabad’s sub-divisional officer of the discom, Dakshinanchal Vidyut Vitran Nigam Limited, Ranveer Singh.
“The electrician... is on contract and hasn’t received salaries for the past four months. Srinivas expressed his inability to pay the Rs 500 penalty,” the SDO said. He denied that disconnection had anything to do with the traffic challan. Police officers claimed that over Rs1.15 crore had already been paid to DVVNL against the bills for the offices and police stations of Firozabad. The remaining dues would be paid soon, they said.