Shimla – Nagrota Bagwan MLA Raghubir Singh Bali on Thursday raised strong objections in the Vidhan Sabha over what he termed as incorrect details of his electricity bill, which showed an inflated amount of ₹6.78 lakh for 14 months. Bali clarified that the actual bill for this period was only ₹1.68 lakh, while the total bill for 32 months stood at ₹2.98 lakh.
The MLA expressed concern that this erroneous figure, presented in the House, had gone viral on social media, creating unnecessary controversy. “The information about the power bill at my residence for the last 14 months was reflected as ₹6.78 lakh, which has gone viral on social media. I believe that those who furnished the information were part of a conspiracy,” Bali said during Zero Hour. He demanded strict action against those responsible for the misinformation and stressed that documents laid in the Assembly must always be factual.
Speaker Kuldeep Pathania assured that the reply would be corrected and added that if the wrong information was provided deliberately, action would follow.
Intervening in the discussion, Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu explained that the inflated figure resulted from an error by the Public Works Department (PWD), which handles the payment of ministers’ bills. “There was a mistake at the level of the PWD department. The bill for the CM’s residence for 14 months was shown as ₹3.76 lakh along with arrears, though the actual amount is ₹1.44 lakh,” Sukhu said. He assured that the figures would be corrected and maintained that action would be taken if any deliberate wrongdoing was found.
The issue surfaced after a query raised by Sudhir Sharma and Kewal Pathania on Wednesday regarding the electricity bills of ministers and cabinet-rank leaders for the last 14 months.
