Bhubaneswar:   The Odisha Pradesh Congress Committee (OPCC) has strongly criticized the move of collecting the last year’s pending electricity dues from the consumers by the private electricity distribution companies (discoms).

In a release, OPCC general secretary Arya Kumar Gyanendra has said that the directive issued by the Odisha Electricity Regulatory Commission (OERC) to collect pending dues is a shameless move. Gyanendra also opposed it and said that Commission, which is constituted to protect the interest of the common people, is playing a broker for the private distribution companies.

Besides, he demanded that the Commission should direct the discoms to provide interest on the security deposits by the consumers. The rules dealing with this issue should be strictly observed, he added.