Consumers get shock after getting inflated bills

Ludhiana: After the local administration suspended public dealing in all government offices of the district owing to rise in Covid-19 cases, local power consumers are in a state of fix as they are unable to figure out as to how they can get their complaints of inflated electricity bills sorted out. Many of them have received backdated electricity bills in which their pending amount has gone up two to three times as the amount paid for the last bill has not been deducted.
Although local officials of the Punjab State Power Corporation Limited (PSPCL) have set up a ballot box at their regional offices in different divisions to receive complaints related to inflated electricity bills, it has failed to solve any consumer grievances as despite placing their complaints in the ballot box, they are not getting any sort of response from the local office of the PSPCL.
Lakhu Maurya, a resident of BRS Nagar, who placed his complaint of inflated bill in the ballot box of the PSPCL at Aggar Nagar sub-division office, said “Despite paying electricity bill on time earlier, I received the back dated bill amounting to Rs 7,500 in the first of week of July. Shocked to receive the bill, I dropped a complaint inside ballot the box before the due date to get it rectified. But ever after 15 days I have not received any response. The last date for payment of bill is already over. I am not in a position to pay the huge amount,” he said.
Another complainant Ramandeep Singh of Rajguru Nagar said, “Although, I paid online a bill of Rs 3,500 a few days back but within a fortnight, I have again received a bill of Rs 5,000 that forced me to step out of my home for dropping a complaint in the ballot box of the PSPCL in Aggar Nagar, but still there was no response. I have already lost by job and have been facing difficulty in managing household expenses after strict lockdown was imposed. Now, these inflated bills have further raised the stress level. The electricity department has prepared bills on the basis of wrong assessment of consumption or inclusion of previous (paid) bills, which is causing harassment to the consumer,” he said.
Chief engineer of central zone, Virinder Pal Singh Saini said, “Local consumers can contact the executive engineer of the regional offices of the PSPCL on their Whatsapp number to get their complaints resolved related to inflated bills.
The senior officials mentioned that the complainants need not come to the offices to drop their complaint in the ballot boxes of power corporation department as the district administration has already suspended the service of public dealing in all government offices.
“Moreover, sometime details mentioned in the complaint letter are not adequate to take further action for early resolution of problems. It’s better if the complainants contact PSPCL officials directly to get their complaints resolved,” he said.
Box- File complaints online or dial helpline
Residents can also lodge a complaint at 1912 helpline number or just log on to Facebook page Fb.com/pspclpb and write down their complaint or issues along with their address and house number so that officials concerned could reach them easily and initiate further proceedings.
“The same plan is used for people who want to register their complaint on twitter as they can visit the PSPCL’s Ttwitter handle at Twitter.com/pspclpb and register their complaint by providing proper data. On Instagram as well, the compliant service is available on Instagram.com/pspcl”.
“Apart from that, toll free helpline number is also circulated by the power corporation department, which is 18001801512, to resolve any kind of complaint related to the power department,” the told chief engineer said.