Pune:
Sanjay Margale, a driver in Haveli who earns about Rs 5,000 per month, was shocked when he received an electricity bill of Rs 50,000.
His electricity connection was cut when he failed to pay the bill, but no one gave a thought to how a man whose previous bill was Rs 750 would suddenly run upto Rs 50,000.
When he approached a senior MSEDCL officer, he was told the bill would be rectified. It was modified, after which the amount came down to Rs 24,250 still many times more than what Margale's usage would warrant.
Margale is not the only one who has suffered because of faulty power bills. Around 50,000 power consumers in the city get faulty bills every month.
Margale had received a bill of Rs 750 in December, for the October-December period. He then received a bill for the December-February period, which was Rs 50,000.
Margale, who has a wife, two children and his parents to support, is now pleading with the Maharashtra State Electricity Distribution Company Ltd (MSEDCL) for the bill to be rectified.
Since Margale is uneducated, his cousin Vijay Kotwal is running from pillar to post to get justice for him. Kotwal said, "The MSEDCL authorities are callous. How can they send a bill of Rs 50,000 to a person who hardly has the means to pay it?"
A source at MSEDCL said that sending faulty bills to customers has become routine in all its three main circles comprising of 12 divisions in the city and rural areas. "On an average MSEDCL sends 50,000 faulty bills per month and spends 90 per cent of its working time correcting these bills and initiating recovery proceedings against consumers who owe arrears," said the source. The three main circles are Rastapeth Circle, Ganeshkhind Circle and Pune Rural.
Consumer activist Vijay Velankar, said the reason people get faulty bills is that the agencies to whom meter monitoring work is outsourced do a shoddy job and MSEDCL is least bothered about it. "MSEDCL officials just don't care for the consumers. They have outsourced the job of meter reading to other agencies," Velankar said. "MSEDCL does not bother to apply its own mind to whether the reading is correct or not."