Times of India | 1 week ago | 13-05-2022 | 01:55 am
Margao: An elderly woman, bedridden on account of an autoimmune disease, endured the rigmarole of bureaucratic wrangles, and fought on and won the battle against the state’s electricity department for excessive billing for energy not consumed by her, her flat having been closed and unoccupied. The electricity department’s Consumers Grievances Redressal Forum, Vasco, in its order, set aside her bills that had accumulated to Rs 21,697 over a five month-period on account of the malfunctioning meter and ordered issuance of revised bills that totalled just Rs 679. Sheetal Sadekar (name changed to protect identity), a resident of Dhavali, Ponda, was aggrieved by a “sudden and unexplained jump” in energy consumption around June 2021, though her flat had remained closed and unoccupied since May 2019. She would usually be billed a minimum amount of about Rs 100 until June 2021 when she received a bill of Rs 873 despite the mains having been switched off. While she took up the matter with the electricity department and vigorously pursued it, the bills for the subsequent months kept increasing until the arrears accumulated to Rs 21,697 in December 2021. As her battle with officialdom in the electricity department failed to resolve the issue, the disabled woman knocked on the doors of the Consumers Grievances Redressal Forum. After hearing the parties through a video conference, the consumer forum noted that the consumption details furnished by the electricity department indicated that while the average consumption between February 2021 and May 2021 was about 5 units per billing cycle, there was a sudden jump to 483 units between May 9, 2021 and June 19, 2021, that kept growing exponentially to 1,659 units recorded on November 16, 2021. After the meter was replaced on November 17, 2021, the consumption dropped to zero units until the last meter reading on February 6, 2022. “The statistics provided by the department unmistakably point to an anomaly in functioning of the meter from June 2021 onwards,” the order noted. “The department relies on Meter Relay Testing (MRT) reports that twice returned a finding that the meter was okay. The testing ought to have been done in the presence of the consumer as required under the Supply Code, which procedure was not followed in this case. Secondly, the consumption recorded by the old and new meters cannot be brushed aside and conclusively point to malfunctioning of the meter from around June 2021 onwards.” Stating that the impugned bills issued between June 2021 and November 2021 cannot be sustained, the Forum headed by chairperson Ashley Noronha and member Sandra Vaz e Correia passed an order setting aside the five bills. “The said bills shall be revised based on average consumption recorded in three billing cycles post installation of the new meter on November 17, 2021. Fresh bills shall be issued to the consumer,” the order read. Complying with the order, the electricity department issued revised bills to the woman totalling Rs 679 only, awarding her victory in the battle for justice that she fought confined to her sickbed.
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