Nagpur: Acting tough, the Maharashtra State Electricity Distribution Company Limited (MSEDCL) has terminated the contract of five more agencies engaged for reading of electricity meters for erroneous data. As the state run distribution company is struggling to minimise losses, the error in data collection is a direct loss. Apart from giving trouble to consumers, it also results in a bad name for MSEDCL apart from creating confusion in the billing process.
At the same time, officials of MSEDCL responsible for overseeing the reading agency work are also put on warning as Sanjay Taksande, Director (Operations), said such acts would not be viewed lightly. He was speaking during a meeting with Directors of meter reading agencies.
Speaking at the meeting, Taksande said during the last two months there has been an abrupt rise in reports by agencies about non-functioning of meters at consumer’s places, meters not working properly or wrong reading which was unusual. Cross checking revealed that the meter readers had indulged in wrong practices and hence work allotted to three agencies in Solapur district and two in Pune were terminated.
The meeting with Directors of meter reading agencies was for Pune Region. Yogesh Gadkari, Executive Director, Billing and Revenue, Ankush Nale, Regional Director, Sanjay Patil, Chief Engineer, Billing and Revenue, Sachin Talewar, Pune, Sunil Pawde, Baramati, Paresh Bhagwat, Kolhapur, were also present at the meeting.
A powerpoint presentation was given to provide information to Directors of meter reading agencies as to errors that were commonly found in the data. Meter reading the main source for billing for the power supplied by MSEDCL and if the data itself is faulty then it becomes difficult to recover the costs, said Taksande and laid stress on 100 per cent accuracy. The action against meter reading agencies is for faulty data and not performing the given task properly.
At the meeting, Taksande even warned the field officers of MSEDCL to ensure that they should remain alert to such malpractices. The data about consumption should match with the power supplied and periodic review should be taken by the branch heads and other senior officers. He advised the Directors of agencies to ensure that personnel engaged for meter reading have basic qualification and do not indulge in malpractices.
