SHILLONG, Feb 6: The Ri-Bhoi People Council on Tuesday met Power Minister, AT Mondal, to highlight several power-related problems faced by the residents of the district.
Members of the organisation, headed by its president, Jyson Lennox Nongrum met the Power Minister in his chamber on Tuesday and submitted a memorandum, that emphasised billing without meter reading, irregularities in bill distribution, financial burden, disruption of services, lack of transparency and accountability in the billing, inequitable access to bill-related information, shortage of Manpower, and deplorable conditions of Infrastructure amongst few.
Speaking to media persons following the meeting, Nongrum said, “In recent months, the residents of several rural areas in Ri Bhoi have been experiencing significant delays in the distribution of their electricity bills, and delivering the bills to the consumers have been frequently failing to adhere to the scheduled timelines, resulting in the late receipt of bills by the consumers”.
He said, “We have received numerous complaints from residents in rural areas highlighting the practice of generating electricity hills from the office without the meter reader physically reading the meter. This practice not only raises concerns about the accuracy of the bill consumption but also erodes the trust of consumers in the integrity of the billing process”.
Talking about their meeting with the Power Minister and their demand, he informed, that they want a prompt and comprehensive review and initiation of corrective measures on the longstanding challenges in electricity billing distribution in the rural areas of the district.
“We also have suggested conducting a thorough investigation into instances of billing without meter reading and corrective measures to ensure that bills are accurately generated based on actual consumption data, and a monitoring system to avoid unauthorised distribution of bills.” Nongrum added.
