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| Consumers up in arms against PDD for issuing inflated power bills | | |  S Tahir-ul Haq
Early Times Report
BARAMULLA, Aug 22: Residents of Baramulla town are up in arms against the Power Development Department (PDD) for allegedly dispatching ‘inflated’ power bills to the consumers in metered and non metered areas.
The residents of Baramulla town alleged that PDD division Baramulla has sent them electricity bills more than limit despite the fact that few areas are falling under metered and some others in non metered areas.
Earlier people used to consume the power supply and excessive electricity tariff was not enough, however the PDD Baramulla division issued bills at the rate of Rs 750 and Rs 850 to 1250 all consumers from both metered and non-metered areas to fleece consumers as usual and the practice continues, said a local resident of Old Town Baramulla.
The consumers from old town Baramulla- Sherkhass under the banner of Sherkhas Welfare Association staged strong protest demonstrations against administration and PDD department besides tore off and burnt electricity bills as a gesture of defiance.
Unfortunately, bills don’t come as per readings and there are huge corrections in the bills for which we are being forced to visit PDD office several times for none of our faults.
We clear one bill and next month the opening balance stands same which is mere torture to the common people as their time gets wasted with frequent visits to the office,” said a protestor of old town.
Not only this, consumers of the different areas including Sheeri, Zogiyar, Heewan, Malpora Narvaw, Zandafaran, Khwajabagh, Nowpora, Kanlibagh and other areas are having similar complaints.
A local lady from the area who happens to be the mother of six daughters, said that, “I have no option but to beg on the streets to pay the bill.
I have one electric lamp in my tin shed that is LED; previously I used to get Rs 100-150 per month. Now the bill is Rs 750. How can I pay,” she said.
The protestors said they would not pay the bills without correction and tore off bills in front of officials after some PDD officials misbehaved with those visiting them for rectification of bills.
The justification of inflated bills offered by PDD authorities is that more electricity is consumed by the people and reading is very low which indicates there is power theft. Thus they have warned the consumers to be prepared to face yet another inflated bill for the month of August and strict checking of power theft which would penalize them Rs 15000 on the spot.
Meanwhile an official of PDD said that, “People are using electricity ruthlessly and there is rampant power theft. I have been given a target of 51.93 lacs per month set by the government as energy consumed by this subdivision. Then who is using the power if meters are showing just 15 units per family. The official said that the people of these metered and non metered areas should cooperate with the department concerned as they don’t have enough staff to monitor all these things on a daily basis. |
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