Sharma said that for all other months, he received a bill of Rs 1,490. “My house is on rent and after seeing the bill, I called up my tenant and informed them of the SMS. They told me they have been using only basic appliances,” said Sharma.
As per an SMS, it was stated if the bill was paid on or before July 24, he could avail of a
Rs 2,84,969.88 discount
At 11.29 am on Thursday, Noida resident Basant Sharma was shocked to see an SMS from the Uttar Pradesh Power Corporation Limited (UPPCL) stating that his electricity bill for the last three months was a whopping Rs 4 crore.
Sharma, a resident of Shramik Kunj in Sector 122, is an employee with the Indian Railways and is currently undergoing official training in Shimla. The bill, he said, was issued in his wife Priyanka Sharma’s name. “I was shocked to see the bill,” he said.
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Sharma said that for all other months, he received a bill of Rs 1,490. “My house is on rent and after seeing the bill, I called up my tenant and informed them of the SMS. They told me they have been using only basic appliances,” said Sharma.
The SMS stated that his electricity bill is Rs 4,02,31,842 crore. It also mentioned that if the bill was paid on or before July 24, he could avail of a discount of Rs 2,84,969.88.
UPPCL Executive Engineer Shiva Tripathi said there was no such bill. “It was only a system-generated message because of some technical error in the computer system,” he clarified. “In our system, the bill was on hold.”
He also said there was no complaint from Basant in this regard. “We were informed of the bill by the head of the Residents’ Welfare Association after which the bill was rectified on Thursday and a fresh bill of Rs 26,000 was sent to him,” Tripathi said.
RWA head Umesh Sharma said that two days ago, he received a call from Basant. “He informed me that his electricity bill was over Rs 4.02 crore and his house is rented. We also got worried, hearing this,” Umesh said. “Then we contacted the electricity department and asked them to figure this out,” said Umesh.
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He also requested the electricity department to fix these errors so residents do not face any problems in the future.
Neetika Jha is a Correspondent with The Indian Express. She covers crime, health, environment as well as stories of human interest, in Noida, Ghaziabad and western UP. When not on the field she is probably working on another story idea. On weekends, she loves to read fiction over a cup of coffee. The Thursday Murder club, Yellow Face and Before the Coffee Gets Cold were her recent favourites. She loves her garden as much as she loves her job. She is an alumnus of Asian College of Journalism, Chennai. ... Read More