Maharashtra chief's unpaid bill

http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/-/1/hi/world/south_asia/5350660.stm

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An electricity employee in India's Maharashtra state has been suspended after cutting off power to the chief minister's bungalow over unpaid bills.

The engineer, LN Borikar, has been told he was wrong to have performed his actions in front of the media.

Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh's bill of 110,000 rupees (nearly $2,400) for power used since May has now been paid.

Mr Desmukh's office says Mr Borikar was right to do what he did, but not in the way that he did it.

'Absolutely correct'

"The engineer did not inform the senior officers or the chief minister's office to correct lapses in payment of dues," a senior official in the chief minister's office told the BBC.

"The chief minister has clarified that he had nothing to do with the suspension of the engineer and did not ask for it.

"He also said the action taken by the engineer was absolutely correct but the way it was done was not proper."

The official also said that the Maharashtra State Electricity Distribution Company had clarified that electricity had been cut to the servant quarters not to the chief minister's bungalow itself.

A state government inquiry into the matter has been ordered and a report is expected in two days.