Power consumers of Gulbarga Electricity Supply Company Limited (GESCOM) took serious exception to the power supply company’s petition seeking a hike in tariff to fill the expenditure-revenue gap and appealed to Karnataka Electricity Regulatory Commission (KERC) not to allow any such move.
At KERC’s consultative meeting with power consumers at the conference hall of the district administrative complex in Kalaburagi on Tuesday, power consumers and their representatives pointed out the manner in which GESCOM functions and also its inability to recover dues from the State government and the various State-owned development corporations and appealed to KERC not to allow GESCOM to transfer its financial burden to genuine power consumers who sincerely pay their power bills.
The meeting was chaired by KERC Chairman P. Ravi Kumar and attended by KERC member M.D Ravi.
Social activist Deepak Gala told KERC to direct GESCOM to take steps to recover dues from the various State-owned development corporations for the Ganga Kalyan scheme and the State government itself for supplying power to irrigation pumpsets of farmers.
Meanwhile, a farmer from Lingsugur in Raichur district Eera Sangappa told KERC that GESCOM is not supplying quality power to irrigation pumpsets for seven hours a day as promised by the State government.
“No officer from GESCOM responds to the woes of farmers. They have collected ₹10,000 from me to give power connection to my irrigation pumpset. Even after paying ₹10,000, I have not received my power connection yet,” he said.
Taking the complaint seriously, KERC directed GESCOM’s vigilance squad to look into the matter and report it back immediately.
When some power consumers expressed their anxieties over GESCOM’s attempt to transfer financial burden arising out of its poor functioning to them, Mr. Kumar categorically said that KERC will not allow GESCOM to do that. “If GESCOM borrows loans from financial institutions to fill the revenue-expenditure gap, we won’t allow the power supply company to transfer the burden of interest on loans onto consumers,” Mr. Kumar said.
A farmer said that electricity wires and transformer sanctioned under the Ganga Kalyan scheme were stolen and the police did not accept his complaint stating that GESCOM, owner of the property stolen, should lodge the complaint. He added that GESCOM has neither lodged a complaint nor it restored power connection to his irrigation pumpset.
Sensing the gravity of the issue, Mr. Kumar directed GESCOM to restore power connection to the farmer’s irrigation pumpset. GESCOM officials sought three weeks to carry out the work and the KERC accepted it.
A cotton mill owner from Raichur Laxmi Reddy appealed to KERC not to allow GESCOM to hike either fixed cost or energy cost for industrial units as cotton mills function seasonally. “Our cotton industry functions seasonally. Most of the mills function only four months a year. If you increase fixed cost, we will have to pay it every month all through the year. This will adversely affect the cotton industry which is already in crisis owing to drought and the resulting diminished yield,” he said.
Mr. Kumar responded positively stating that KERC will look into it.
A representative of the Vijayanagara Chamber of Commerce and Industry Ashwini Kotambri complained that there was frequent outages of power supply in the industrial area off Tungabhadra Dam Road in Hosapete in the previous months disrupting the functioning of the industrial units.
Expressing discontentment over GESCOM’s functioning, Mr. Kumar directed GESCOM Managing Director Ravindra Karalingannavar to ensure uninterrupted power supply to the industrial area, as it ensures good revenue for GESCOM.
At the end of the meeting, a few consumers presented sample bills of all ESCOMs to Mr. Kumar complaining that only GESCOM bill is not easily readable by common people.
Mr. Kumar directed Mr. Karalingannavar to issue only such bills that are easily readable for common consumers so that they can better know their power consumption and the tariff for it.
