The Hindu : New Delhi News : Power consumer grievances not being heard adequately at BYPL forum

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Monday, Jun 27, 2011
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Power consumer grievances not being heard adequately at BYPL forum

Smriti Kak Ramachandran

NEW DELHI: In the absence of one member, the Consumer Grievance Redressal Forum (CGRF) of the power distribution company BYPL has its hands full these days, leading to an ever-increasing backlog.

Each discom has a CGRF set up to deal with consumer issues pertaining to billing, meter-related cases and poor service. “Discoms have a very robust grievance redressal mechanism. But in case a consumer's query or grievance is not redressed to their satisfaction, they approach the CGRF. The Electricity Act, 2003, also mandates setting up of a CGRF in areas served by the three discoms — BRPL, BYPL and NDPL,” said a source.

Each CGRF, as per the law, has three members — a chairperson and two members — one each from a legal body and a non-governmental organisation. “Though the Chairman has the veto power, cases are judged by a majority vote,” said the source.

With the NGO member having completed the tenure, the CGRF for East and Central Delhi has been left one member short. “The other member [legal] too has completed the tenure, but has been given a three month extension. The CGRF works just a few times a week and in the absence of the full team, work is only piling up,” the source said.

The position for the NGO member remains vacant since the retirement of the then incumbent in December 2010.

“Once the member [legal] retires by the end of this month, there will only be the chairperson. And because of the CGRF's peculiar two member status, even if either the chairperson or the member [Legal] is on leave, the cases are not heard. It is affecting the consumers,” said the source.

For their part the discom said: “To fill the vacancy, we have issued advertisements twice in the newspapers. We had also forwarded a list of suitable applicants to the Delhi Electricity Regulatory Commission.”

“A list of suitable candidates has been sent to the DERC twice for their consideration. However, there seems to be no action taken yet for filling both the vacant as well as about to be vacant posts,” the source said.

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