Using women to track down work shirkers seems to have yielded results for the Maharashtra State Electricity Distribution Company (MSEDCL) after its Damini squad found 367 cases of negligence on the part of private agencies that were outsourced for photo billing of meters.
The squad was formed recently with women employees to find cases of negligence in taking meter readings and printing bills.
The 367 were detected in Thane and Vashi which fall under the Bhandup zone of the company comprising 12.38 lakh consumers.
According to KS Shegokar, superintendent engineer of the zone, it was the idea of MSEDCL managing director Ajoy Mehta to form such a squad for checking irregularities in the billing department.
“The basic idea behind formation of this squad was to detect discrepancies in meter reading carried out by outsourced photo billing agencies. There were a number of complaints against these agencies, which were also supposed to take photographs of meters and print them on bills. More than 16,000 connections from the Thane region and over 5,000 connections in Vashi were checked by the squad consisting of a junior engineer, two outsourced female employees and some class-four staff,” said Shegokar.
Out of the 367 cases, 68 were commercial, 282 residential and 17 were three-phase residential consumers. More than 100% negligence on part of the agencies was reported in as many as 198 cases. Out of these, 35 were commercial, 157 residential and 6 were three-phase residential consumers.
In 548 cases, the agencies have not taken photos of the meters by giving excuses such as meters locked and reading not accessible. In one of these cases, an FIR against Rigved Electrical was lodged with the police. Warnings have been issued to Pradeep Electricals, Aradhana Agency, and Advance Memory.
Negligence by these agencies was reported in some other forms as well; they include change in consumer status as old meters (even after installing new meters or replacing faulty meters) and changing of names on the meter. Of a total of 361 such cases, 53 were commercial connections, 302 residential and 6 were of three-phase residential connections.
In Vashi, among the 43 cases which were found being given the wrong status on meters, 19 were of reading no accessible and 9 of wrong bill punching. For this, three agencies were at fault. While complaints have been registered against Reliable photo meter reading agency and AR agency, Mahesh Data services has been banned from outsourcing, informed MSEDCL officers.
Theft of power worth Rs2.41 lakh has also been detected by the squad under Sarvoday sub-division, Thane.
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