Pulwama residents complain inflated electricity bills

 

Instead of providing consumer friendly services to the people, the Power Development Department has irked the residents of Pulwama town by installing new electricity meters which show inflated bills.

A delegation of representatives from Malikpora and Dalipora areas of Pulwama town told Kashmir Vision that the department recently replaced old electricity meters with new electricity meters. Since the replacement, they complained of inflated bills.

 “I used to receive a monthly bill of Rs 300 but after the replacement the department is sending a bill of Rs 800,” said Nazir Ahmad Mir, a resident of Dalipora. He said that when they went to the concerned department to know reasons for the hike they were given no satisfactory answers.  Another resident Rafiq Ahmad from Malikpora area said that he received a bill for Rs 600 which was double the bill with old meters.

The residents also accused the department of unnecessarily installing new meters and cried foul in their purchase.   

Meanwhile, PDD insisted that the new meters are showing correct readings. When contacted the Executive Engineer PDD Pulwama, Gulzar Ahmad said that the consumers should bring it into his notice if they have any issues.

“There is no problem and no tempering has been done with the meters,” he said, adding that the old meters were malfunctioning due to which they have been changed.

He further said that the old meters were installed on house walls of consumers; they were resorting to power theft by passing these meters after taking illegal connections. He said that such a possibility has been eliminated by installing the new meters at the source on electric poles. “They have to pay for what they actually consume,” he said.

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