Gurugram: In addition to being miffed with the Dakshin Haryana Bijli Vitran Nigam (DHBVN) over regular power outages in Gurugram, a large number of residents, for weeks now, have been disturbed and inconvenienced by faulty power bills being sent to them.
A large number of angry customers are seen daily at the customer care offices of DHBVN, the power distribution company in Gurugram, to rectify their bills. The consumers highlight that DHBVN officials provide them with inflated power bills and the bill also does not provide correct details of the units of power consumed, past consumption and sundry expenditures.
Since March, when the lockdown started, residents seem to be having problems with the power department over the bills being issued.
Most residents said that as DHBVN does not have skilled manpower to take the readings from the power metres, in most cases, electricity bills are prepared through estimates rather than the actual readings. Many others complained that they have not received power bills and had come to collect them at the DHBVN office.
In addition to posting their complaints on the Chief Minister's Window, consumers have now taken their outrage to social media, posting pictures of their faulty power bills, in a bid to hold DHBVN officials accountable.
"Even during COVID-19, you can see a long queue of aggrieved residents who have come at the DHBVN office to rectify their bills. This is one of the scams where the hard-earned money of the resident is being looted by providing faulty bills. Those who are able to fight their way through manage while those who do not get harassed by the officials," said Gaurav Rode, a resident of
Sector 31.
Acknowledging that there have been complaints of faulty power bills, senior officials of DHBVN said that all major complaints are being rectified by their engineers and officials.
Faulty power bills and electricity metres are not new problems in Gurugram. To deal with it, the DHBVN had planned to install smart electricity metres in 12 lakh households. Expected to have been completed by the end of 2020, the work was delayed due to the pandemic.