Two-day walk to pay electricity bills

Costumers of Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA) in Ilam district are forced to walk a long distance spending Rs. 1,000 to pay just Rs. 75 in electricity tariff every month.

The NEA has only three counters in district headquarters, Ilam, Fikkal and Pashupatinagar. Costumers from around two dozens of the VDCs, including Chulachuli, Sakphara and Danabari, have to walk two days to reach the district headquarters spending large amount of money to clear electricity bills.

"We spend around Rs. 1,000 to reach to the district headquarters just to pay electricity tariff," said Yam Rijal, a teacher of Danabari.

Sometimes consumers need to wait for two days and stay at hotels due to crowd in the counter, said local people.

Though consumers have been demanding that the NEA authority, and Ilam District Administration set up a counter in accessible place, the authorities concerned ignored the demand, complained the NEA users.

A counter established in Mangalbare was displaced during a decade long conflict hasn’t been reinstated yet.

NEA said the office could not extend its service establishing more counters due to lack of manpower.