Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath has asked the UP Power Corporation Limited to ensure uninterrupted power supply during the festival period from Dhanteras to Diwali.
Energy Minister AK Sharma said here on Wednesday that he had asked the power utility to take necessary steps and ensure compliance with the chief minister's order.
Sharma said the government had taken cognisance of the inconvenience faced by the power consumers due to wrong billing by the billing agencies hired by the UPPCL. The energy minister on Wednesday held a meeting with the representatives of the billing agencies and took them to task and asked them to improve their performance or face the consequences.
The minister asked the UPPCL to encourage the power consumers for self-billing to eliminate the problem in billing faced by them.
The energy minister, while reviewing the performance of billing, meter reading and revenue collection, on Wednesday, said, “The government is flooded with complaints of faulty billing by the billing agencies and power consumers are facing many difficulties in getting the bill corrected and paying their bills.”
He said despite repeated warnings there was no visible improvement in the situation and this was the last warning. He said from now on strict monitoring of the performance of the billing agencies would be done.
The minister directed the director (commercial) of all five power distribution companies to scrutinise the faulty billing of all consumers with bills of Rs 1 lakh and above within the next three days. He said the UPPCL was spending Rs 13 crore every month on billing agencies yet 50 per cent of the complaints related to faulty billing. He asked the billing agencies to ensure flawless billing or the hiring contract would be cancelled.
Additional Chief Secretary (Energy) Mahesh Kumar Gupta said the UPPCL would conduct regular monitoring of the billing, revenue collection and replacement of faulty meters. He said a campaign would be launched till November 30 for improving the performance of the billing agencies.