E-Paper
Power-hit can’t say hello to LESA!
Landline telephones at around 20 sub-stations LESA are either disconnected on non-payment of dues or developing a defective, reports Brajendra K Parashar.
While erratic power supply and frequent outages are once again making people’s life miserable during the extremely hot days, residents of hundreds of localities have no communication links to lodge their complaints.
Landline telephones at around 20 sub-stations (complaint booths) of Lucknow Electricity Supply Administration (LESA) are either disconnected on non-payment of dues or developing a defective whereas the JEs and the SDOs have been treating the official mobile phones as their personal property.
Hussainganj, OCR, Victoria, Balaghat, Gaughat, Vibhuti Khand, Chinhat, Nishat Ganj, Mahanagar, Aishbagh Rajajipuram-New, Rajajipuram—Old, Talkataora, Mohanlalganj and Malihabad are all the sub-stations where one cannot lodge any complaint simply because the telephones there are either disconnected, out of order or their numbers have changed.
Hussainganj sub-station caters to many important localities and Government offices like Secretariat, OCR, Royal Hotel (MLAs’ residence) and the like. But when residents reeling under power crisis dial 2635073 number to know about the status of power supply, they are told “service to the dialed number has been temporarily withdrawn.” In fact, the BSNL disconnected this phone quite some time ago due to LESA not paying the dues pending against the phone, said sources.
Same is true of the phones installed at the sub stations like Vibhuti Khand (2300440), Rajajipuram-New (2410346) and Rajajipuram-Old (2418720). On the other hand phones at Chinhat (2818051), Aishbagh (2269878), Talkatora (2265936) and Malihabad (2767248) are out of service or dead. So, when one dials a number of phones at Victoria (2254825), Balaghat (2248933), Gaughat (2249781), Mahanagar (2385750) complaints booths, one is told “the dialed number does not exist, please check the number and dial again.”
No doubt LESA has a Control Room also but it hardly entertains complaints direct from the public and instead advised callers to first lodge their complaint at their respective sub-station. Moreover one of the phones at the Control Room has also been dead for last many days.
Not only this, despite the fact that the LESA’s JEs and the SDOs have been given the mobile phones by the department under the corporate plan with clear directions to them to entertain public calls, but they use the officials phones as their personal property.
In most of the cases, people just do not know their mobile numbers due to there being no publicity. The officials hardly respond to a call from someone who has got access to their numbers.
