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Reader's Mail

In the red

I have had a very bad experience with three companies -- Shamken Cotsyn Ltd, Shamken Spinners Ltd, and Morepan Laboratories -- with whom I had deposited a total of Rs. 1,25,000. The Shamken Cotsyn and Shamken Spinners deposits matured in March 2004 while Morepan Laboratories matured in March 2003, but I have not received my money so far. Repeated requests and reminders have proved futile. The only reply, if at all I get any, is "we don't have money", "it'll take some time" or "we are working on it".

Morepan Laboratories have even taken back the FD cheques, issued by them in advance, saying that "we will look into the matter", while Shamken Cotsyn and Shamken Spinners have advised me not to deposit their cheques in their bank.

As one totally dependent on this money, having no other source of income, I look forward to an immediate return of my money now.

Uma Sharma,

A-4 Press Apartments,

23 I.P.Extension,

Delhi - 110 092.

Electric shocks

We wrote to BSES Yamuna Power on August 21 to ask about extraordinary variations in electricity bills since February 2000. They showed a standard deviation of 23.11 for an arithmetic mean of 23.52; and moving averages calculated showed that in the space of 35 months the daily cost of electricity consumption had shot up by 130.17 per cent.

BYPL reacted by sending a bill which slammed Rs.7,044.72 on us as "adjustments". We said that we would not pay that bill, which was incomprehensible and barely legible.

The company sent someone on October 4 to check the meter. The illogic of this was that the present meter was installed relatively recently, while we had asked about a period which began five years earlier. The next day, people came to conduct an "energy audit". They found that consumption in this flat would be less than 2 KW even if, in a fit of lunacy, we were to switch on everything at the same time.

They then proceeded to "check" the meter yet again.

BYPL sent another bill the next day. It was legible, but "adjustments" had disappeared, the figure having been moved to "arrears" and raised to Rs.7,052.05. The bill, however, had to be paid, since dire threats were held out citing Section 56(1) of the Electricity Act.

On October 24 two persons visited our residence. They had no idea of what our letters, tables and charts had said and shown; and they knew nothing of the "arrears". This is a defining characteristic of the supremely disorganised "organisation". The senior functionary with whom I was put in touch said she had read my letters but then proceeded to speak of a different period altogether. Mendacity is a known method of hiding one's ignorance and shutting up those who make a noise.

Some days later, a Ms. Deepti telephoned and said that the bill had been prepared without regard to the instructions of someone high up. When I said that it had been paid, she assured me that the excess would be deducted from future bills.

Immediately after that came a letter from a P.C. Jain, AGM (Business) East, whose language and arithmetic were both beyond me. In precise words, he said that energy charges were a percentage of energy charges. He also said, "now the action is over and bill revised accordingly".

Did he mean that the bill which was prepared in error and already paid had been revised? Or did he mean the one we received today, which demands Rs.1,500 and says nothing of an excess charged earlier?

And why, for the love of God, do these characters expect us to understand "GoNCTD Subsidy" and "Discom Adjustment"?

Mukul Dube,

D-504 Purvasha,

Mayur Vihar 1,

Delhi - 110 091.

What a month!

"Campus Jottings" by Lakshmi B. Ghosh, "Festival time on campus" (December 8) talks of the many festivals in December (Miranda's "Tempest", Hindu's "Mecca", Shri Ram's "Crossroads", along with the festivals at Hans Raj, Sri Venkateswara, LSR, et al). Mention may also be made of the 125th Founder's Day of St. Stephen's College on Wednesday, December 7, when Mani Shankar Aiyar (Economics Honours First Class First, St.Stephen's 1961-1963) delivered an inspirational address exhorting today's Stephanians not to shun politics and the civil services for the corporate sector (even though all three of his Stephanian daughters have done so).

On Sunday, December 11, hundreds of alumni (the College has 40,000 alumni, of whom 14,000 have been listed in a directory by the Old Students' Association chief, the tireless Arvind Malhotra, to be released on February 1, 2006) gathered on the sun-dappled lawns for the Old Students' Reunion Lunch even as the only Shakespeare Society east of Suez performed "Julius Caesar" and the multi-college 25-person Collegiate Commonwealth Group of India-cum-Current Affairs Group of Delhi University completes 17 programmes in the first two academic terms of 2005-2006 (including interactions with Sir Mark Tully, Mr. Ram Niwas Mirdha, Dr. Deepak Pental, Mr. P. A. Sangma, Mr. Sachin Pilot, British Deputy High Commissioner Mark Runaues, Australian High Commissioner John McCarthy, Sri Lanka's outgoing and incoming High Commissioners Mangala Moonesinghe and Romesh Jayasinghe, as well as an India Habitat Centre interaction not long ago with British Prime Minister Tony Blair, apart from intense discussions on "International Terrorism", "The Emergence of India and China in the 21st Century" and "The Human Condition Today", not to forget participating in the Delhi leg of the Queen Elizabeth II baton relay for the March 2006 Melbourne Commonwealth Games).

Delhi University's premier -- and oldest -- college is thus choc-a-bloc with quality activity. Three cheers!

Vinod Chowdhury,

Senior Reader in Economics,

St. Stephen's College,

Delhi - 110 007.

PIN-pricks

Pitampura is a very big area consisting of multiple colonies inhabited by a sizable population. Moreover, it is a good commercial centre.

For some strange reason the postal authorities abruptly changed the Pin Code of the area from Delhi-34 to Delhi-88 about two years ago; then again they reversed it to Delhi-34, with the result that many organisations in the area have suffered badly.

For example, Vishwa Jagriti Mission (VJM) is a religious organisation with a monthly publication, "Jivan Sanchetna", with a very large following. Two bundles of copies of the magazine have been misplaced and their whereabouts are not known. This has caused a heavy loss to the Mission. Who will compensate it for this?

Sailen Basu

NU-99A Pitampura,

Delhi - 110 034.

No gum!

Postage stamps of face value less than Rs.10 are not being provided with gum paste at the back for the past two months.

The Nasik press is producing sub-standard postal material. The authorities concerned must restore quality.

Gautam Kaul,

162, Vasant Enclave,

New Delhi - 110 057.

(Letters for this column may be sent by e-mail to wsins@thehindu.co.in. They must carry the full postal address of the writer and should be marked "Reader's Mail".)

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