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Bills inflated as discom staff ‘fail to read meters’
Consumers have complained of having been issued ridiculously high power bills this cycle, which discom officials claim can be blamed on linemen’s ‘laziness’.
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Daskshin Haryana Bijli Vitran Nigam has said it has received complaints from consumers, most of which are in the new city, that their meter readings as per bills do not correspond with thier usage, and the amount hence calculated is inflated. “My bill for the month of June and July has come to be Rs 31,500 which is ridiculous given that both my wife and I are working and are out most day and both our kids go to school,” said Amit Agarwal, a resident of Malibu Towne, a township on Sohna Road.
For some residents, a two- to three-fold jump has been recorded, without substantial change in consumption patterns. “My average daily consumption was 9-15 units between 26.9.2015 and 26.05.2016. It shot upto 35 units/day between 26.5.16 and 26.7.16 despite no change in usage pattern,” said Ram Mohan, also a resident of Malibu Towne.
The residents approached their respective circle offices for an explanation, however, nothing came of it. Some were, in fact, told the bill has increased due to the increased usage of air conditioner this season due to humidity. Consumers have been left clueless by the the lack of communication from sub divisional offices.
The residents, instead, argued that if that were the case, bills would have spiked proportionally across the city, instead of a selected few. “I agree summer months require more AC usage but the units consumed were beyond expected calculation. We all try to keep a slight record or check on our usage, and bills go up or down. However, so many consumers cannot be wrong about the same thing at the same time,” said Sardar Gurviner Singh, a resident of Sector 52.
Officials at DHBVN claimed that the discrepency has taken place because of the laziness of their technical staff who is supposed to take readings. The said the linemen did not actually take readings out of ‘laziness’ and generated random readings averaging the previous months’ consumption.
Consequentially the discom ended up generating random power bills basis the average consumption. “Our staff that is supposed to take the reading used to avoid going to the field and give a reading averaging the previous month’s bill which has caused a backlog of unpaid consumption,” said a senior DHBVN official.
He added that department has now taken it up with their staff who will be now taking regular readings not causing such problems in the future. Adam Boqvist Jersey
