Dakshin Haryana Bijli Vitran Nigam — exaggerated meter reading and inflated bills - dhbvn electricity board

Address:	122011
Website:	www.dhbvn.org.in

I am a resdient of a1-block, sector 55 gurgaon who is facing serious incorrect electricity meter reading and inflated bill amount issue since last few months. Dhbvn has installed open 3 phase meter on the street light poles which are not even sealed and subject to electricity theft and tampering.

My 3 phase electric meter was not recording the correct consumed units since last 2 years since we moved to gurgaon. This was a first hand new meter installed back in 2016. All this time i have been paying my electric bills on time without knowing the meter reading was infact incorrect and exaggerated. It was only until day before yesterday when the dhbvn meter reading people came (@aamir khan and ganesh, sector 55 zone, gurgaon) who informed me that my meter is not recording the correct reading. It jumped from 13170 which was the last reading as per dhbvn register to 25734 as of current date which is a whopping difference of 13000 units in 3 months which was totally unacceptable keeping in mind on an average our consumption is close to 600-700 units a month.
The meter reading person was reluctant to write the meter reading on their register & advised me to inform the authorities at dhbvn. When i visited the dhbvn office, sector -48, kanhai branch, gurgaon the officials sounded disinterested to hear me out. They directed me to the junior engineer mr. Vinod. He tried to explain the meter is not faulty but the reading on my bills since last 2 years were below what was consumed for real. Now i have to pay for the accumulated units which was not recorded in my past bills. He was totally unjustified in his statements stating i will be billed an exaggerated amount in my next bill. My reading was showing 13170 in my january’18 bill which i paid. Post that nothing got recorded as per my march bill as the company implied an approximate projected unit of 1922 for which i was billed extensively around rs.16000 which i paid as well. Now they are projecting a bill close to rs. 1 lakh which is simply unacceptable.
Then they tossed me to another department to meet mr. Raj singh to check my meter reading recorded in last few months. Unfortunately the sector -55 register they showed me had an clerical error as they failed to mention the updated meter reading for march. When i asked i was told the meter reading team must have got confused is why they did not mention anything for march – post which they sent a huge bill by simply averaging out the last 3 bill units.

I went back to the complaint room to request the team further look into the matter as they insisted to get my 3 phase meter tested in one of their dhbvn labs. They charged me rs. 750/- cash at the counter for meter testing however there was no notice board where the testing cost was mentioned neither their web portal shows the rs.750/- fees. When i enquired about the cost disclosure the cashiers swayed away stating they are not aware if its mentioned on dhbvn portal. I kept asking where is the cost mentioned however nobody at the dhbvn premises answered my question. Ideally there should not be any such fees applicable for meter testing if the complaint is raised by the customer. This was a money minting trick to befool common man. I doubt dhbvn has an inventory of all this meter testing cash they collect on daily basis to show to the state govt. Neither the slip stated it was for meter testing. This must be investigated.
Meanwhile the official mr. Gurdarshan singh told me that i need to get the meter unhooked & get it back here at dhbvn office so that the junior engineer mr. Vinod alongside me can take the meter to the testing lab. I had come back home to get the meter unhooked by the dhbvn lineman and again took it back to the dhbvn office. No officials were there as they took an early lunch before 1.30pm and made me wait longer. Post that i was informed junior engineer left for the day and i being the consumer have to take the meter all by myself to the sector-18 dhbvn lab which was totally unheard and uncalled for.
Still i took the meter to their lab. Their they got it tested for about 15 mins by keeping a reference meter alongside to check if the reading was accurate. When i asked they told me the testing is done under 7kw load. Mr. Ram niwas the official there told me the meter is showing the correct reading although i was not at all convinced. He also told me that previous bills were charged less than what it should have been & therefore now i am supposed to pay the entire amount for last 2 years as arrear. This was shocking. He even admitted that the fault was the meter reading guy notated wrong units each time he came at my site instead of notating the correct unit – they often do these things to avoid the task of looking into each meter by climbing the pole etc. Mr. Ram niwas told me that actual data reading are stored in their server however when i asked to give a copy of the data he denied saying its not available at present. He will email it to the dhbvn kanhai branch. He handed over the meter testing approval report. Eventually i got the same meter hooked on the pole again by their lineman. Note – i had to take a day off for all this footwork.

Today morning i visited the dhbvn kanhai office again to submit the meter testing report. Mr. Vinod (Je) was again saying the same thing as yesterday that i have to pay the entire difference. He is arrogant and not helpful at all. When i insisted whom to complaint he directed me to the sub-division officer mr. Pankaj panwar. I met him in another room i explained him the entire issue. He too narrated the same story stating the meter reading got blocked and now i will be billed for the difference. He told me i should have tracked and notified the dhbvn much earlier instead i told him that being a consumer i had full faith in dhbvn generating correct bills. Mr. Pankaj told me they will tally my meter reading with the server meter data they have stored which meant dhbvn should have audited my account much earlier & notified me about the issue they never did. This was a complete i completely denied to pay for any unjustified units which i never used keeping in mind my limited usage of around 600-700 units that too in summers. I simply told him to waive off the entire units which were shown incorrectly and going forward i will keep a track of the meter reading. He told me that to avoid high slab rates of rs.7/kw the difference of 13000 units will be spread over last 24 months which will reduce the slab rate to rs.5.5/kw. However i denied that option since that is an unrealistic and incorrect unit difference. I also shared how other residents of a1- block, sector 55, gurgaon are faced the same issue in recent past & there are newspaper articles highlighting the same issue. Mr. Pankaj reluctantly told me to draft an application which will be responded within 48 hours. I told him clearly that i cannot afford to take day off anymore (2 days off already) and want a permanent solution. Also informed him about how their meter reading team is tampering the reading by recording incorrect reading in their register as they should be penalized with appropriate action. Notice board should be there at office premises showing the meter testing figure for 1phase, 2phase and 3phase meters clearly. I submitted the complaint application & got an acknowledgement. Note - at the window they could not generate a simple print out of my bill for acknowledgement as their printer is broken and asked me to get a photocopy from outside. Soon after the lady at the complaint counter gave 2 duplicate bill printouts to another consumer which means they lied.

This is a far bigger and serious concern for all gurgaon residents where dhbvn is trying to mint money out of people by imposing incorrect bills based on their fast jumping meters installed openly on street light poles. They won’t even seal the meter on request until consumer pays rs.120 for two seals. My experience after this day has become bad to worse.in fact this entire team of hoodlum is robbing money out of commoners. This needs to be investigated at the higher level.
# please cascase my complaint to a higher level for urgent action #