Srinagar, June 25: Piqued over Power Development Department’s move to “harass” consumers, the Kashmir Chamber of Commerce and Industry has sought clarification on the issue from the Chief Engineer, EM&RE.
 The KCCI in an open letter to chief engineer, EM&RE Wing, Kashmir, has urged the latter to clarify the “purpose for seeking details from the consumers about the actual load.”
 “If the department intends to know the load or revise the load only for the purpose of increasing the capacity of local transformers, then consumers have no objection; but applying them for minimum charges will have resistance from all the consumers,” the letter reads.
 “It is requested that necessary clarification may be issued in light of above,” it reads, adding that the KCCI hopes the clarification is issued in the best interest of the public in general and the KCCI in particular at the earliest.
 Accusing the department of trying to harass the consumers by asking for revising electricity load, the KCCI says that it apprehends that “the minimum charges hinted to be fixed after ascertaining the load will steeply increase the electricity bill.”
 The letter reads: “The actual power consumed in every household or business establishment is much less than the appliances available in the household/business establishment.”
 It adds: “The usage of electricity in non-domestic commercial supply is limited up to evening hours.”
 The KCCI says: “We are at a loss to understand as to why the department is trying to harass the consumers by asking for revising electricity load as minimum charges will drastically increase the electricity bill.”
 “The KCCI has always advocated billing based on actual consumption so there is no justification for the metered area to revising the load and we fear that this will give rise to increase of bills of consumers without an increase in consumption.”
 Pertinently, the PDD has distributed pamphlets in Srinagar asking the consumers to voluntarily declare electricity load.
 The move has evoked wide spread condemnation with people from different walks of life accusing the department of trying to find out new ways to harass the consumers.

Lastupdate on : Mon, 25 Jun 2012 21:30:00 Makkah time
Lastupdate on : Mon, 25 Jun 2012 18:30:00 GMT
Lastupdate on : Tue, 26 Jun 2012 00:00:00 IST