Southern States - Karnataka   

NGO to collect power bills

By Our Staff Reporter

VISAKHAPATNAM SEPT. 28. For the first time in the State, a Self-Help Group will run an electricity bill collection centre here from October 1.

As part of the Government's move to involve voluntary organisations in the distribution and collection of power bills, the Eastern Power Distribution Company of AP Ltd. (EPDCL) and the Chaitanya Sravanthi -- a city based NGO which promotes training of women to help them earn a living by training them in various vocations -- have come to an agreement to run a bill collection centre at the Shadi Mahal (Old DEO office), Kotha Road in the Old Town area. As per the arrangement, EPDCL will pay Rs. 10 per bill. In all, 17,000 customers come under the D-1 bill collection centre allotted to Chaitanya Shravanti on an experimental basis.

Meanwhile, the EPDCL staff are training the NGO activists on e-accounting. The Chaitanya Shravanti president, Shirin Rehaman, told reporters on Sunday that they had chosen six computer literate persons from poor families to work in the bill collection centre. She said they would operate the centre 12 hours a day.

Asked to comment on the viability of the project after commissioning of e-seva centres in the city, the EPDCL Superintending Engineer, Gandhi Babu, and the Divisional Engineer, H.Y. Dora, said that their main objective is to extend the working hours of bill collection centres and render better service to the public by involving NGOs. He also indicated that they would soon introduce payment of bills from various areas in the district at any one of the bill collection centres.

Mr. Gandhi Babu said that the Visakhapatnam circle of EPDCL had been adjudged the best in the State in revenue collection.

"We are realising 100 per cent collection every month with a monthly revenue of Rs. 45 to 50 crores,'' he stated. Referring to the directive of the AP Electricity Regulatory Commission, he said that the bill collection system had been revised and had been made mandatory for the consumers to clear the billed amount within 14 days of receiving the bill.

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