Ghaziabad residents meet power officials over ‘incorrect’ bills
According to the Confederation of Trans-Hindon Residents’ Welfare Association, residents of many colonies in Indirapuram have got “incorrect” electricity bills in the past three months.
Upset over receiving “incorrect” electricity bills, members of the Confederation of Trans-Hindon Residents’ Welfare Association (CONTRWA) met the sub-divisional officer (SDO) of the power department in Indirapuram on Saturday.
Various issues related to power supply to the area were discussed with the officials of the department.
According to the association, residents of many colonies in Indirapuram have got “incorrect” electricity bills in the past three months.
“The department is sending bills according to a consumer’s sanctioned load, instead of the cost of the consumption. So a person who has a sanctioned load of 5KV, is getting a bill for 5KV even if the consumption is only 3 KV,” said Mohan Sangwan, president of the CONTRWA.
Senior officials of the power department, however, said the bills are not incorrect and the consumers are being charged according to the rules.
“As per the regulations, consumers are to be charged for 75% of their contracted load or the actual consumption, whichever is higher. The bills are being generated according to this rule,” said MC Sharma, superintending engineer, power department.
Residents said that consumers in Shakti Khand-1 locality have not received electricity bill for the past two months. If the department combines two months’ bills in one month, it puts additional burden on the consumers, they said.
“Paying one month’s bill at a time does not put burden on a consumer, but paying two months’ bills together upsets the household budget. We asked the official to send the bills regularly,” said Kuldeep Saxena, a member of CONTRWA.
The residents also complained that the transformer in Niti Khand-1 is not functioning properly due to which there are frequent fluctuations in the evening.
“Electrical devices of many consumers have been damaged due to the frequent fluctuations in power load in the evening hours. We also requested the SDO to tell department employees to deliver the electricity bills to the consumers’ doorsteps rather than leaving them on the meter panels. If the bills are left at the meter panels, they get misplaced and so the consumers are not able to pay them on time,” said Saxena.
Officials of the department said they will look into the problems discussed by the residents.
“The problem of fluctuations is arising because of faulty earthing in the transformer at Niti Khand -1. The problem of two months’ bills being generated together is only for a particular locality and we will resolve the issue,” said Rakesh Verma, SDO, electricity department.
He said the employees who deliver the bills will be told to leave them at the doorsteps of the consumers rather than on the meter panels.