Residents pose with their bills outside the office of the executive engineer, UPPCL, in Indirapuram on Sunday.
Residents of Indirapuram, Ghaziabad, are up in arms against the electricity department of the state government, which has levied upon them an additional bill in the name of provisional charges. The last bill received for the month of March has come with a provisional bill amount.
The last date of payment of the bills was April 4 and the date of disconnection, in case of non-payment, was April 11. However, after a meeting held on Sunday, arranged by the Ghaziabad Federation of AOAs, between the Uttar Pradesh Power Corporation Ltd (UPPCL) executive engineer Deepak Kumar and the residents, the due date was extended to April 15. In the meeting, the residents had agreed to pay the bill only if the due date was pushed to April 25.
Kumar said, “The provisional bill is an attempt by the government to complete its revenue target for the financial year.” However, he did not clarify the exact amount of the financial target. He also said that the provisional bill amount will be adjusted in the main bill for April. “Provisional bills are delivered every year and it is not a problem. Residents have to clear the bills by April 15,” added Kumar.
DK Maurya, general secretary of Niho Scottish Gardens, said, “The society had received a provisional bill of Rs 15 lakh, which the society paid fearing late charges. But soon we got another provisional bill of Rs 12 lakh. Our society will become financially unstable due to these provisional charges after festive seasons. We have a big staff working for the society and we won’t able to pay their salaries if we pay this provisional bill."
BK Pandey, maintenance manager of Arihant Harmony in Ahinsa Khand II, said, “The electricity bill for March, which amounts to Rs 4,60,000, was accompanied by another provisional bill of Rs 5 lakh.”
Mohit Mishra, president of AOA, HRC Professional Hub, another apartment in Indirapuram, said, “The bill amount for March was Rs 6,86,000 and it was accompanied by another provisional bill of Rs 9,53,000. This has caused a commotion among residents. The management of various societies say that they face the threat of disconnection of electricity if they fail to pay up. On the other hand, if they do pay, how will they manage the society’s expenses in their limited budget and paucity of funds?”
This untimely spike in electricity charges has caught resident associations by surprise. Alok Kumar, president of FedAOA, said, “The electricity department is putting societies under financial stress. Sudden financial stress of this sort is forcing the AOAs to rethink their financial strategy.” He was also not content with the development in the meeting. He said that the meeting with the executive engineer bore no concrete result or solution. "We will not pay the provisional bill amount. We will continue follow-ups with the officials and sit for a protest if we have to,” he said.
Representatives of AOAs, including Alok Kumar, DK Maurya, Mohit Mishra, and SK Sharma, are set to meet Arvind Rajbedi, chief engineer, UPPCL, Ghaziabad zone, to discuss the issue on Monday.
