The electricity consumers continue to face problems due to the negligence of the power corporation. The locals complain that they are being served arbitrarily with power bills by the corporation without the meters being read. Frustrated with such arbitrary over-billing, the villagers have warned of undertaking agitation if the problem is not resolved in the near future.
Inflated power bills are being issued to residents of several villages of Chamba in Jaunpur development block including Dhikilgaon, Arakot, Banali, Swadi and Sabli among others. The locals point out that the power meters were not read and arbitrary readings were entered in the bills. In addition to this, the bills were not even served on time.
Due to this, the villagers are forced to make repeated visits to the power department office to get the bills rectified. The villagers complain that the irresponsible attitude of the officials is causing mental trauma and increasing the financial burden due to the inflated bills becoming overdue for no fault of theirs.
According to Narendra Ramola, Sanjay Bahuguna and Rajesh Semwal neither were the exact readings of the meter taken nor were the bills delivered on timeto the consumers. In such a situation, the problems of the people already reeling under high prices are mounting. They demanded early solution to the problem.
The Uttarakhand Power Corporation limited SDO, SK Gautam said that the employees had been given strict instructions to take the meter readings regularly. The bills are rectified for those consumers whose reading from the meters could not be taken, he added.