Team Herald
PONDA: Ponda locals, especially the poorer section, are extremely troubled over their high electricity bills, wherein now, they have to pay the bills of 76 days at a stretch as opposed to the earlier system where they would receive a bill of one month.
They have complained that this has disrupted their set monthly budgets where they would keep aside some amount of money to clear the bills. Now, they face heartache every time they see such heavy bills. They have further questioned why there has been a delay in the generation of bills. It may be recalled that there has already been discontentment in the State at the increase in power charges recently.
Power consumers added that on one hand, the power department wants to charge interest when bills are not cleared on time, but on the other hand, the department is not fined for the delay in issuing the bills.
Residents have also said this could be a way of tricking the consumer who may not be able to understand the increase in rates per unit and that they can be charged exorbitant bills in the future.
“By receiving a bill where they combine the charges of two and a half months, , we now have to pay Rs 1,500 to 2,000 more than what we would pay earlier, when we used to receive the monthly bill. This amount may not be high for others but people who earn a daily wage, to shell out so much money at one time is a big problem, “said Nayan Naik from Kavlem.
“The government has already hiked the electricity bills. But we are engaged in private jobs and our salaries haven’t been hiked. All other costs are increasing including the bus fare. We do not want bills after 76 days,” said a Ponda resident.
Executive engineer Sunil Wadekar at the Electricity Department at Curti, said that due to the recently concluded elections, the staff were busy on election duty and that this could have been why there was a delay in issuing bills. He added that now there wouldn’t be such problems in the future and assured that bills will be used on a regular basis.
