Don’t cut power abruptly: Minister

Thiruvananthapuram: Power minister K Krishnan Kutty has advised KSEB officials against cutting power supply to customer premises indiscriminately and asked them to ensure that all other available options are tried before severing the power connection.
The minister was addressing a meeting of board officials held in the background of certain complaints against the board officials indiscriminately pulling off the power supply when the customer fails to pay the bill on time.
In order to avoid unnecessary disconnection, the meeting has resolved to update the phone number of consumers through meter readers, cash counters and online. For this, the board would launch a campaign. The SMS service would be effectively utilized to remind the consumers repeatedly about the non-payment before the disconnection.
The meeting has decided that disconnection of power supply in unavoidable circumstances would be carried out only on working days and it should be done before 1pm so that the consumer concerned would get enough time to clear their bill dues the same day.
Once the consumer clears the bill arrears, including on holidays, the board officials should try to restore power supply at the earliest, the minister said.