Power bill shocker for Bathinda residents

Bathinda, August 30

Residents of the district are up in arms after having allegedly received inflated electricity bills from the Punjab State Power Corporation Ltd (PSPCL). With many bills running into lakhs, consumers claimed these were way higher than the power units consumed by their households.

Gurmeet Kaur, one of the complainants who hailsfrom a poor family in the Goniana block, alleged that she had got a bill of Rs 1.71 lakh.

She has been running from the pillar to post to get the bill corrected. However, PSPCL officials were threatening to disconnect electricity connection to her house, she claimed. Kaur said, “Ever since our meter was installed, we have been getting electricity bill on a regular basis. However, we did not receive a bill for the past eight months and we approached the PSPCL at the Goniana sub-division regarding it many times. Now, suddenly we have received a bill of Rs 1.71 lakh.”

She said, “To our utter dismay, we found out that as per the bill, we have consumed only 7,704 electricity units and the actual bill comes to Rs 56,162. We barely have any proper source of income amid the Covid-19 pandemic. We don’t know where should we go to get it rectified?”

Jagir Singh, another consumer, said, “I have received a bill of Rs 75,980 which is way higher than the unit consumption.” Gurdeep Singh Brar, a leader of BKU Sidhupur, threatened to launch an agitation. — TNS