Hyderabad: After being in the dark for three years, a resident of Attapur finally got electricity restored and justice from inflated electricity bills.
The consumer, Mohammed Kaiser, had taken on rent a space to run a welding shop in 2012. He was asked to pay a whopping amount of Rs 1.37 lakh for defaulting payment for five years. Electricity to his shop was cut in 2014. The department initially charged a development fee of Rs 60,000 for 38HP load.
Mohammed, however, maintained that he cleared the dues in October 2012, and stated that his demand for power was limited to 8HP. In 2014, the electricity department raised the first demand with a compounding fee, amounting to Rs 92,000. He, on the other hand, said that he was getting an inflated bill.
He also produced a letter written by the assistant divisional engineer to the assistant accounts officer which stated that development charges and non-payment fee must be dropped since the dues were owed by the previous tenant.
When the consumer paid the bills for the normal usage, the electricity department demanded a compounding fee and finally cut off power supply. They asked him to pay Rs 1.37 lakh to restore the electricity connection.
The district consumer forum, however, noted that the electricity department continued to generate bills for almost 18 months and disconnected the power supply, causing mental agony and loss of business to the complainant.
The electricity department was asked to pay Rs 1 lakh compensation to the consumer and also to restore the power supply.
