BANGALORE: When he got a water bill on August 11 for Rs. 1,500 instead of the Rs. 300 he normally pays, G. Thippeswamy of Krishna Rao Park did what any conscientious consumer would have done — complain to the grievance redressal cell of the Bangalore Water Supply and Sewerage Board (BWSSB).

Four months later, on December 3, a BWSSB official "inspected" his meter, informed him that his bill cannot be reduced, and then asked for a payment of Rs. 250 for the inspection.

K.S.R. Rao dreamt of what it would be to cruise down 1st Main, 1st Block, Koramangala, the road in front of his house, when the Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BMP) took it up for improvement in 2002. To his dismay, the work was abandoned half way through. His residents' association lost no time in filing a complaint to the BMP. Four years later, nothing has changed.

Do the public grievance redress systems of our major city utilities work? The Hindu team contacted consumers who had approached the BMP, BWSSB, Bangalore Electricity Supply Company (BESCOM) and Bangalore Metropolitan Transport Corporation (BMTC), and found that there were more complaints than compliments for the important public interface units of our public utilities.

Redressal

Redressal of a grievance is sometimes ignored even when it is adding to losses. A resident of Dwarakanagar in Hosakerehalli (name withheld) filed a complaint recently that her water meter was not working. "After complaining thrice, a BWSSB official came and cleaned it. But even now, the meter is not running and we get only the minimum bill," she said.

When P. Girish of J.C. Nagar near Basaveshwaranagar complained of a dysfunctional meter to BESCOM, he was made to go from pillar to post. "The officials responded only after two days," he said. His family had no power for full 48 hours. Not all consumers of utility services are unhappy. Several consumers contacted by The Hindu said they were by and large satisfied with BESCOM's service.

BMTC services

The rudeness of conductors and drivers in the BMTC despite complaints continues, according to several commuters The Hindu spoke to. Though commuters are happy about grievance redressal mechanism, those who have complained of bad behaviour of conductors and drivers say a lot needs to be improved despite initiating action against them.

Commissioner of BMP K. Jairaj says the grievance redress system has improved over the years. Its four control rooms record more than 25 complaints each day. The BWSSB, which gets about 250 complaints a month, claims that only 15 per cent of them are not attended to because they would need separate budgetary allocations or big schemes.

BESCOM gets about 500 complaints a day ranging from irregular power supply, low voltage, voltage fluctuations, bill-related problems and localised failure in power supply. BMTC Chief Traffic Manager (Operations) Dartagir Sharief says that 425 complaints were received from the public from April to September. He said each one of them was being attended to. Over a quarter of the complaints were suggestions which need some time and financial allocations.

Consumers, however, tend to be sceptical. "All claims by authorities that they have a full-fledged complaint redressal system are just eye-wash," Ram Murthi of Koramangala said with reference to BMP. Many who complained to the BMP said they faced difficulties in getting timely and proper relief. Though BWSSB claims to have put an IVRS in place, a person answers the calls and even advises you to call a local official.

In one particular case, the local official advised a resident of Ganganagar Extension not to use the grievance cell at all.

"You should go through the proper channel," he was told. The complainant is still waiting for the BWSSB to clean the muck around four manholes on 1st B Cross a full week later.

What the official website of the Department of Administrative Reforms and Public Grievances of the Union Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pension (darpg.nic.in) says assumes significance: "The grievance redress mechanism of an organisation is the gauge to measure its efficiency and effectiveness... "

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