Hyderabad: Citizens who sometimes inadvertently miss out on paying electricity bills in time for reasons of being away from town etc. are bearing the brunt of the Discom officials’ misplaced zeal, while around 2,000 big defaulters in the city — each owing over Rs 50,000 —are not touched.
Regular bill payers are complaining that it is not fair on the part of the power staff to disconnect their connections just because of a delay of a week to 10 days.
“Delay in payment is also not intentional. It slips one’s mind sometimes, people are busy. The staff should check the payment history of consumers before disconnecting. If one is a regular payer, more time should be given,” said Ms N. Fathima, a resident of Tata Chary Colony, Begumpet.
Harassed for being regular
Enquiries by DC revealed that assistant engineers (AEs) and the staff under them are given monthly targets. Interestingly, the performance of the AEs is gauged not so much on the basis of their technical work in maintaining uninterrupted supply but on their revenue collections.
The result is that operation and maintenance of power supply have taken a back seat and genuine bill payers are harassed for late payment.
“There is more chance of getting bills paid if the AEs threaten regular bill payers with disconnection, than seeking payment from long-standing defaulters,” a retired Discom official said, adding as per rules, a notice has to be served giving a consumer at least seven days to pay the bill (after due date) before disconnecting the line.
Discom officials meanwhile said just because a consumer has paid power bills within the due date for 10 months in a row, it does not mean that he or she can default. “More than 10 days is given to pay the bill from the date it is served. The long-standing defaulters with over Rs 50,000 dues too pay their bills regularly.
The pending Rs 50,000 or even Rs 1 lakh are disputed bill amounts, which will be settled in the court or in a consumer court. Apart from that, the defaulter has to pay his bills from next month onwards regularly to get supply,” said a senior official.
