Regulator asks govt to ‘fix’ Kejriwal’s SMS helpline on power cuts

The Power department has received 1,406 complaints through this helpline and found 1,043 valid. There are 498 SMSes against BRPL, 367 against BYPL and 178 against TPDDL till April and all these have been forwarded to the DERC to decide whether these power cuts were because of maintenance of lines or some other local problem and, if not, whether these were unscheduled cuts.

The DERC has reportedly told the department to correct the mechanism of sending SMS-based complaints to it.
“These SMSes should be forwarded to the consumer redressal grievance forum and so forwarded straight to it rather than directed to us. It can come to us at the stage of appeal,” the communication between the DERC and the Power department reads.

A senior official said the DERC also objected to the mechanism by which the complaints are being sent. “They believe SMSes are an informal way of sending complaints and verifying each one of them is a time-consuming process that should be attended by consumer redressal forums. We will reply to their letter after consulting officials and checking the protocol and guidelines on sending these SMSes,” the official said.

Delhi residents can SMS ‘DL POWER’ and then write their name, address and complaint with details like time and duration of power cuts to 9223166166 to register their complaints.