SANGAREDDY: Srinivas, a resident of Muthangi of Patancheru mandal, got the shock of his life when he received an electricity bill of more than Rs 1.27 lakh. He has been running a hair cutting salon in Muthangi for several years now. Srinivas, whose average monthly electricity bill is in the range of Rs 200 or so, was taken aback on receiving the excessively inflated bill. In June, he got a bill for Rs 971 but July’s bill came as a ‘shock’ to Srinivas. The bill was exactly Rs 1,27,751.
Repeated attempts by Srinivas to get the issue resolved by the electricity office at Patancheru have failed. Instead, he was asked to visit the electricity office at Sangareddy. This is not an isolated case. Another consumer, Babumiya of Zaheerabad, used to get Rs 150-200 bill every month. But one fine day he received a bill for Rs 90,000. Babumiyan died of a heart attack five days after he received the bill. “Even if he sells his house, he won’t raise that much amount,” a family member remarked.
What is more shocking is that at least 106 consumers in the village received power bills ranging anywhere between Rs 60,000 and Rs 90,000. Officials cited technical glitches for excess billing and the problem is not confined to Zaheerabad and Patancheru but also Sangareddy and other places. Responding to the issue of excess billings, Sangareddy district Transco SE M Ravi Kumar admitted that recently 106 consumers in Didigi village in Zahirabad got excess billing due to a technical error and added that they were trying to rectify the error.
Excess billing due to technical glitches
Nearly 106 consumers of Zaheerabad received electricity bills ranging anywhere between H60,000 and H90,000 recently. The reason cited for excess billing by the department officials was technical glitches