(1888PressRelease)
July 16, 2007 - It was time for some Gandhigiri in Bandra on Friday afternoon, roses in hand.
With their complaints of erratic power supply and excess billing evoking no response, hundreds of residents from Santacruz turned up at Anil Ambani-led Reliance Energy's (REL) office in Bandra East and handed over 5,000 roses—along with their complaints—to the officials.
“We have been getting erratic and excess bills for the last one year. Now we are saddled with this new bill, which is again hiked,’’ said Ashok Singh, president of the Santacruz residents’ association. “Anil Ambani group company, Reliance Energy Ltd, installed Chinese meters, which run faster than the old meters, a year ago but many of us get excess bills. Also, despite the numerous complaints, the officials have done nothing.’’
Consumers said the utility should have given a toll-free number as their helpline is also charged. “The company is making crores in profit but it is shameful that they cannot even provide a toll-free number,’’ said Suman Sharma, a consumer.
The residents had an hourlong meeting with the Reliance officials at the Bandra office. “We apprised the management of the situation,’’ Singh said.
The residents also pointed to the problem of frequent power cuts during heavy rains. “Last week, there was no power for over four hours. We had to repeatedly call the maintenance technicians to get the lines repaired,’’ said Sharma.
A Reliance spokesperson, on the other hand, claimed that “the company hadn’t got a single complaint on excess billing till date’’.
“When the consumers met us with a memorandum, we asked them to bring the complaints as well, but they did not do so. Also, the helpline number is toll-free. The power cuts were announced earlier so that we could do maintenance work in the monsoon. And the meters are checked in keeping with the BIS norms,’’ the official claimed.
