[Resolved]  PVVNL Ghaziabad — Wrong billing, disconnect, faulty meter - harassed for a year

Address:

Ghaziabad, Uttar Pradesh

I have a PVVNL connection for the last 12 years (Book No 6049, Connection No. 043530). However, I have been living out of town for the last 5 years. Since I was going to visit my Kaushambi, Ghaziabad house only once in a few months, I started paying the electricity bill in advance (as in, pay more than the billed amount, so it could be adjusted against the minimum monthly charges). Things were fine will July 2011, when suddenly I found that my consumption is being taken on 'assessment basis' and not on actual meter reading. When I inspected the meter, it was working fine. It seemed that since there was hardly a few units electricity consumption (IN A HOUSE WHICH WAS LOCKED FOR FOUR YEARS, OBVIOUSLY!), the person taking the reading assumed that the meter was faulty. The assessment was of 400 units month! Even when i was living there, my consumption was about 100-120 units a month ( I have bills to prove that). By the time anyone took notice of my complaint, it was Nov 2011, and already there were 2000 units arbitrarily billed to my account. I met the SDO Vaishali in Nov '11 who promised to take immediate corrective action. He wrote instructions for JE Kaushambi, but when the JE Kaushambi send a person to check the connection, the meter was showing no display. The JE asked me to get the meter changed. This, I did, after consulting with the SDO, and paying the requisite fee. Despite that, and despite paying a total of over Rs 10,000 for the period, in January my connection was disconnected. After two months of running from office to office, finally the connection was restored. However, when I went back to my house in May '12, to my shock, the billing was still being done on 'assessment' basis, despite a working meter, showing valid readings (which we were noting religiously on a placard next to the meter). I went through the same grind again - SDO Vaishali, JE Kaushambi, etc. Finally the SDO wrote instructions to settle all outstanding amounts, etc. and advised me that with some 200 units deduction, the total amount comes to -(negative) Rs 5694 (meaning PVVNL owed me Rs 5694, as on 26th May 2012). Having no choice, I accepted this as I saw no hope of getting back the other amounts I had paid. I thought the worst was over, but I was wrong
Within three months, by August '12, PVVNL suddenly disconnected my connection again, this time making some strange excuse that my original (12 year old) transfer from the builder's name to my name has not been done, and the fees not being paid. Of course, I had the documents to prove that IT HAD BEEN DONE. The biggest being the BILLS THEMSELVES, which were in my name since year 2000. When contacted, the new SDO Vaishali was not available and his subordinates asked for an application, which was duly submitted. However, another month has passed and there is no action. Instead of looking into the matter, PVVNL again deducted almost Rs 4700 between June and August. Today, the connection has been restored and the meter is working, but the PVVNL staff refuses to take the reading or provide an explanation of the Rs 4700 deducted. It is just a matter of time that the remaining Rs 900 will be over, and then armed with a new excuse (unpaid amount) they will happily disconnect again. When and how will I get relief from this rotten system? I am a senior citizen and a 65 year old widow, and If i dont get justice now, I will go to any authorities or any forum possible