news details |
|
|
| WANTED: A Kejriwal to unearth Power Bill Scam in J&K! | | | Abodh Sharma
JAMMU, Jan 3: Under pressure to bridge the huge power deficit, the Power Development Department has resorted to inflated billing and the honest domestic consumers are red faced over unreasonable electricity bills they are receiving month after month despite judicious- rather miserly use of power and prolonged power cuts.
Domestic consumers in Jammu have been taken aback by the hefty electricity bills which have continued to swell despite using power smartly and are contemplating a movement as led by Delhi's sitting CM Arvind Kejriwal who motivated people not to deposit their inflated bills and himself climbed on electricity poles to restore the connections of the people whose connections were severed by the power distribution agency for nonpayment.
"I have no heating device in my 3-room house; I use no heater or induction for cooking and have only CFLs in place which are used strictly when required; yet my electricity bill is over two thousand a month, which is unreasonable by all means," said Shivam Gupta, a bank officer in Janipur locality.
Sources disclose that the existing electricity bill can be slashed by half or even more by paying a negotiated amount to the PDD field staff. "My neighbor, who owns a huge house and uses multiple ACs and heating gadgets gets a bill far less than mine" rued Tarsem Lal, a modest Government servant, indicating at the nexus. "Besides, these PDD officials allow huge pilferage of power by unregistered consumers including the non local labour that resides in slums across the city by charging anything between Rs. 300-500 from them" he added demanding strict vigilance on the PDD staff who have not only being duping the honest consumers but also bleeding the state exchequer.
Since 2006-07, the consumers in non-metered areas have witnessed an increase of 24 percent to 225 percent in power tariff. Also, the metered areas in the State have experienced 33 to 100 per cent per-unit hike during this period.
While there was large scale resentment against the unreasonable hike, the State Electricity Regulatory Commission approved an average 8.5 percent increase in power tariff for the 2013-14 financial year, with eight percent hike for domestic category. But on the other hand, this hike has been put at just 2 percent for the Central and State Government departments, though many of them happen to be the biggest defaulters on account of power dues. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
| |
|
|
|
|
 |
|
|
