Senior citizen forced to do rounds of power corporation office

Tribune News Service

Ludhiana, February 4

Despite depositing the electricity pole shifting charges, a senior citizen is forced to do the rounds of the PSPCL office as the department has failed to get the electricity pole shifted from outside his home at Durgapuri in Haibowal Kalan, here. The elderly man alleged that the power pole caused inconvenience to him and his family.

Vijay Kumar Verma of the Durgapuri area said he had been visiting offices of the PSPCL repeatedly since November 2021 but his request to shift the pole was still being ignored. He also said to have already deposited around Rs 15,000 to the PSPCL as pole shifting charges.

He said: “The PSPCL had installed an electricity pole near the middle portion of our house wall years ago when I was working in Chandigarh. After retirement, I requested the PSPCL to shift the pole to a safer place to avoid inconvenience to us. The department first took too much time to make an estimated cost of shifting the same. I was asked to deposit Rs 15,195 as shifting cost. When I went to deposit the fee in March 2022, I was told to come after September 15, 2022. PSPCL officials said the period between April and September remains their prime time when they don’t do any other work, except maintaining power supply. I then deposited the pole shifting cost to the PSPCL on September 16, 2022.”

Verma said the SDE concerned had asked a contractor to carry out the work in October 2022. However, the contractor along with a junior engineer had visited the site but nothing had been done to get the pole shifted to date. “This is sheer harassment to me. Now, I have sent a complaint to the Chief Minister and the PSPCL’s higher authorities as I am being forced to make repeated rounds to the office even after depositing the pole shifting charges,” he added.

An Executive Engineer of the PSPCL said he would look into the matter.

However, he said there was also a shortage of staff.