John Wilbert and Sarthak Kanjilall
Port Blair, June 16: Limit fixed on Common Service Centers (CSC) of not collecting electric bills exceeding Rs. 4000 has resulted in huge queues outside all the Electricity Site Offices in the South Andaman District.
Long queue for paying electric bills and no one to monitor it, often results in gross violation of social distancing norms.
It is learnt that the last date to pay the bill is 30th June 2020 and if someone misses that last date he will have to pay penalty, therefore, to avoid this penalty people are rushing to the Electricity Site Offices to pay the Electric bills.
“We do not have the option to pay the Electricity Bills online, like the people in mainland have, hence, we have to stand in the queue either outside the Electricity Billing Counter or in front of some CSC to pay the bill,” said another consumer maintaining secrecy.
Talking to Andaman Sheekha, a resident of Middle Point said that he received an electricity bill amounting Rs 4500 and after standing for 15 minutes outside a CSC at Middle Point, when his turn came, the CSC workers told him that they cannot take the bill as the bill amount exceeds Rs 4000.
“I don’t know what this criteria is for the CSCs, now if I go and stand outside any Electricity Billing Counter, that will be too risky for my health, as no there is following any social distancing norm,” he added.
Many Islanders told Andaman Sheekha that the timing to pay the Electricity Bills must be extended for 02-03 more months. Firstly, this will give sufficient time for the consumers to arrange the money to pay the bills for the previous 03 months, secondly, social distancing will also be maintained and people will be safe.
When Andaman Sheekha contacted the Superintendent Engineer, Electricity Department, Er. Ajit Bernard in this matter to take his view, he said that in the entire country only 07 days was given to the power consumers for paying the bills after the lockdown was over. As Andaman doesn’t have any online bill paying facility, the time has been extended till 30th June 2020 for paying the electricity bills.
“This is the first time I am hearing that the CSCs cannot collect bills that exceed Rs 4000 but now after I am aware of it, necessary steps will be taken to remove this limit,” Er. Bernard added.
