Panipat resident gets power bill sans meter

Mukesh Tandon

Tribune News Service

Panipat, November 11

A resident was shocked to see an electricity bill issued in his name while his residence in Mukija colony here is without an electricity meter.

Kamal Gupta said he had applied for a new connection under domestic category for his new home at Pipal wali gali in RK Puram, under Model Town sub division, on May 22, 2017. “I have deposited the charges demanded by the power corporation for new connection but no meter has been installed at my new home till now”, he alleged.

He claimed that he had visited the power corporation office many times and requested officials to install a new electricity meter. “When I regularly contacted the officials, they said that the file had gone missing. They even suggested that I make a new file. However, I managed to find it from their office and when I asked them to instal a meter, they showed me four electricity bills generated in my name,” he said.

It was very shocking for him that without the meter being installed, the corporation had generated the bills, Gupta stated.

“I immediately approached the officers and asked them to correct the things and instal an electricity meter. I also sent an application to SDO, Model Town, along with the electricity bill of Rs 3,260 on September 26,” he said.

Usha Mittal, sister-in-law of Kamal Gupta, alleged that an employee of the corporation had also taken bribe to instal the new meter.

Pankaj Dhawan, XEn, Model Town, said it was a serious matter and he would inquire into it and the guilty would not be spared. “The meter will be installed at the consumer’s address very soon,” he added.