Maximum consumer complaints filed against Electricity Deptt

Other sectors which have upset consumers in Panchkula include insurance,housing and banking. In the past one and a half years,there have been 691 cases against insurance companies.

About 206 cases in Panchkula have been filed against the housing sector and 143 have been filed against the banking sector. In the housing category,more than 90 percent of the cases were filed against the Haryana Urban Development Authority (HUDA) while a few complaints were also made against some private builders and property dealers.

According to officials of the consumer forum,there is a similar scenario in the banking category. The maximum number of complaints are received against nationalised government banks,while there are only a few cases filed against private banks.

Officials say that this is because private companies have clearly stated terms and conditions as they are very careful about not incurring any losses.

Another reason for this private-public divide in consumer cases is that private companies usually act instantly on complaints received by them.

Officials say that consumers initially approach the service providers with their complaints. While private firms instantly rectify the problem,the public sector takes a lot of time. So,the harrowed consumer files a complaint,hoping for a speedy hearing.

The kind of complaints against the electricity department mostly include those related to charging fines from consumers on grounds of some kind of tampering with the seals on electricity meters installed at homes. Official say that most often,the seal breaks on its own because of being old,and the consumers are not even aware of it.

In one such case,a complaint was filed by a resident of Yamuna Nagar District in Haryana against UHBVNL. The department had conducted a checking and imposed a penalty of 34,000 rupees on the complainant on grounds of illegal abstraction of electricity energy. It was reportedly found that the company seals of the meter were tampered with and some parts of the meter were found missing.

The consumer forum pronounced a judgment in favour of the complainant,stating that no lab report of the confiscated meter was produced as evidence.

Also,the department had also not provided any document that showed variation in the consumption of energy prior to the date of checking.

The UHBVNL was told to return the fine collected with seven percent interest as well as rupees 2,000 as compensation on account of ‘mental agony and harassment’ caused to the complainant.

Since January 2011,there have been only two consumer complaints against airlines,two against industries,five against transport companies,seven against railways,ten against finance sector and three against telecommunication service providers.