The proposal of Hubli Electricity Supply Company (Hescom) to hike the power tariff by 88 paise per unit has been opposed by the general public. Those who opposed it said it was unfair to hike the tariff without improving the quality of power, services and customer care.
The customers expressed their displeasure over the proposal at the public hearing held by the Karnataka Electricity Regulatory Commission (KERC) chairman M R Srinivasa Murthy at Dharwad.
The members of the public were agitated over the proposal to hike power tariff and the lackadaisical attitude of the Hescom officials in attending to the grievances of customers.
Lawyer Shridhar Prabhu said the petition by Hescom failed to show valid grounds for the power hike. Objecting to the format of the petition he said it was not in the form of a petition and demanded that it be rejected.
He said, the customers were not informed of the reasons for the hike in power tariff and no information was uploaded on the Hescom website.
Gadag Chamber of Commerce and Industry president R K Rangrej expressed displeasure over the Hescom proposing the hike in tariff in untimely manner. A system of consulting the customers in advance and introducing the new tariff from April 1 should be started, he said.
Rangrej said, instead of taking steps to stop the transmission loss that was at 19.85 per cent and recovering the arrears from the local bodies, the Hescom was shifting the burden on to customers who pay their bills promptly.
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Karnatak Chamber of Commerce and Industry president M S Hiremath said he had no objection to Hescom taking steps to improve the quality of service along with the tariff hike. But, it was not happening and problems like the power fluctuation were causing heavy losses to customers.
Ananth Pai from Kumta and others alleged that the Hescom officials were not responding to their complaints and not conducted the bimonthly customer’s meet. Pai alleged that the officials did not respond to his complaints even after one year.
KERC chairman M R Srinivasa Murthy too expressed displeasure over the Hescom having bad impression among the customers. He said the situation would have not arisen if bi-monthly customers’ meetings were held regularly.He directed the Hescom managing director Pankaj