PUDUCHERRY: Power consumers are facing harassment in payment of electricity bills for September as the details of the bills remain unavailable in the computers at the bill payment counters in town areas.
People, after waiting in long queues for more than an hour, were told to go to the head office for payment as the bill details had not been fed into the computer.
Even after going to the head office, they were again told the same thing and then directed to a clerk for the entry of their details in the computer. This was also done after wading through a queue yet again. Thereafter, some people made their payment, while others could not, said a consumer. They could do it only on the next day. This has been going on as a routine in the current month. However, those who came to remit the bill just on the last day of payment or a day before the payment were the worst affected. Not only harassment, but payment of the bill a day after the due date would attract fine for the consumers.
This harassment led to protests at the bill payment counter for residents of Perumal Koil Street, as the queue was long and it was the last day for payment for some of the consumers. People waiting for more than an hour got agitated when they were told the same thing.
The problem occurred due to non-entry of bill data in the computer by lower division clerks, said an official. As the lower division and the upper division clerks had been deputed for duty in the election department for revision of electoral rolls about 10 days back, they would have missed entering the data. Besides two computers, one in town area an another in Karikalapakkam were not working, and have been restarted only in the evening.