Hundreds of women staged demonstrations at Kathiapada, Sipi, Thakurpatana and other villages of Jagatsinghpur area in protest against entry of employees of Enzen Global, a Bangalore-based private company, for collection of electricity bills and meter reading on Saturday.
The agitating women also detained 10 officials of energy police station and five Enzen employees at Kathiapada village for three hours. The villagers alleged that Enzen employees were issuing inflated bills to power consumers.
The company employees also charge huge amount for restoration of power supply, installation of transformer and electricity connection. Illegal power-cut, poor service to the consumers, monopoly of Enzen officials and collection of huge amount of bribe from consumers, humiliation and torture by the employees are other allegations made against the company officials, said the villagers and demanded cancellation of agreement between CESU and Enzen.
Meanwhile, District Electricity Consumer Welfare Association has formed village-level associations in many village of Jagatsinghpur electric division.
President of Thakurpatana Electricity Consumer Welfare Association Rabi Narayan Sahu said the consumers were deeply dissatisfied with Enzen employees for which women prevented their entry.
During demonstration at Kathiapada village, tension prevailed for some time as Enzen employees collected ` 1,000 from two consumers towards restoration of power supply.
Getting the information, hundreds of women went to the spot and detained 10 officials of energy police station and five Enzen employees.
The detained employees were released after they returned the amount and promised not to come to the village for collection of bills.
The villagers alleged that Rs 12.08 lakh collected by Enzen from 6982 consumers between 2010 and 2012 had been misappropriated by the officials.
They said Enzen is paying only 72 paisa to CESU while collecting Rs 3.90 per unit from the consumers.
They said power supply has gone haywire after it was handed over to Enzen in April, 2010. “Our agitation would continue till the deal between CESU and Enzen is scrapped. We will organise agitations in other villages in coming days,” said leader of district association Basudev.
IIC of Energy police station Nirupama Mallick said no complaint has been filed about illegal detention of the company employees.