Common Service Centers create confusion
Staff Correspondent
Port Blair, June 15: On May 24, 2012 the Electricity Department had issued a press release saying that from June 2012, collection of electric bill payment for Commercial category consumers will also be done through the CSCs. But to the dismay of small and big business owners this facilities has not been extended yet due to some internal problems.
Business owners and those who run commercial establishments have been demanding collection of commercial electric bills through CSCs, since a long time and a press release issued on May 24 had come as a great sense of relief for them.
But now it has been found that CSC staffs are openly refusing to accept any commercial bills, without giving any valid reason.
However, when contacted, sources in the Electricity Department have confirmed that this is being done because the agreement for accepting Commercial Bills has still not been signed between the CSC operators and the Administration.
Not only this, many residents complain that the CSCs are causing much inconvenience to public. “After accepting application they ask us to come after 10 or 15 days but even after 20-30 days they fail to give us any reply. Ultimately they ask us to go to the concerned department and approach directly. In that case what is the need of having CSCs in Andaman,” questions an old resident of Port Blair.
The Administration must put complaint box in every CSC or provide an email IDs for receiving complaints against CSCs, to get the right feed back about the Common Service Centers.
However, later in an official press release the Electricity Department clarified that, “All the commercial category electricity consumers are informed that due to administrative reasons the collection of electric bill payments have not started through the CSCs w.e.f. June, 2012 onwards as announced earlier by the Electricity department. Hence the commercial category consumers are requested to deposit their electricity bill payments at departmental counter only as usual till further announcement.”
