Tahir Mushtaq
JAMMU, Jan 21: With complaints against the services of Power Development Department (PDD) rising every month, government has directed the department to establish call centers in Jammu and at Srinagar divisions.
According to the sources, it is proposed the 24-hour cells will have all the latest equipment like dedicated phone lines, computers, faxes and separate staff so that they can register and take necessary steps to solve the problems of the consumers, who have to face tough time to get their problems resolved.
PDD already had complaint cells, but lack of coordination and accountability within the department make it impossible for the common man to get solution, as far as any electricity related problem is concerned.
According to the sources, although funds are being diverted for the project by the state government, officials have been asked to identity necessary space for the upcoming centre to make it functional for the general public in coming months. Officials said that the authorities have asked the respective Chief Engineers to give it a priority. PDD is one of the departments in the state which is very poor in dealing with the consumers and sometimes people have to waits for days or even months to get rid of their problems.
A official said, “We have been asked to set up the call centre cum grievance cell and process has been started for the same”.
He further said that although no time frame has been set up for the purpose, to make it functional, but necessary ground work is being conducted for the purpose.
“We can’t make it functional in one day but it will take some time but till then we have kept some employees especially for the grievance registration”, official said.
After the government started the process of e-metering and the computerised billing for the consumers in Jammu and Kashmir, the people are facing lot of problems, but in absence of proper channel at the department, they are confused by the red-tapism at the respective PDD offices.
“I have received a tariff bill about three months back, but the amount shown is more than what I have consumed, but nobody taken interest to correct it”, said a consumer, Vicky Sharma from Janipur area.
The basic problem faced by the consumers in the state is mainly related to electricity supply, fault in respective supply lines and billing complaints. The problem gets more complicated in rural and far- flung areas of the state, were damages to transforms or any other fault, people have to wait for months together, as most of them don’t know whom to approach to resolve their issues.
Chief Engineer further said, “It is aimed at streamlining the system so that we can reduce the time as far as fault repairing or any other complaint is concerned”.
It is pertinent to mention here that in recent years PDD is on major revenue realization drive, after the tough stand taken by the central government against J&K. This year government has set a target of collecting Rs 408 crore from Jammu region and Rs 623 crore from Kashmir region.
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