Cholera tragedy in Indian village sheds light on power debts bworldonline.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from bworldonline.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Village councils struggle to pay bills as new water connections increase energy usage, but cash-strapped power companies need the revenue to ensure a steady .
Clean water had just started sputtering from newly installed taps in Pachdongri village in Maharashtra last month when the power supply to the hilly hamlet was cut off for unpaid bills. Residents link this power outage to a cholera outbreak that followed, claiming five lives. Pachdongri's outstanding power bill of Rs 52,000 ($657), pending for about five months, accounts for a
The department of water supply and sanitisation had reached out to 1,553 villages in the state as part of a special campaign between July 25 and August 12 and managed to cover all households in 1,513 villages