Bescom shows it has the power to resident crusaders Thirty-six apartments of Nagarjuna Meadows at Yelahanka had defaulted on paying power bill. And in response, Bangalore Electricity Supply Company (Bescom) plunged all 318 flats of the massive four-block apartment complex into darkness, giving a convoluted explanation. At 9.30 am on August 27, the power went off at Nagarjuna Meadows. There was no prior notice; the residents initially thought it must be some urgent technical maintenance. A few hours later, and with power still not restored, some of the residents called up the Bescom helpline. The reply they got was shocking: 36 flats had defaulted on power bill, so supply to all 318 flats has been severed. By afternoon, a group of residents, led by Antony d’Souza, the residents’ association president, had rushed to the Bescom assistant executive engineer’s office at Yelahanka. How could the power utility make 318 flats suffer for the fault of 36, they implored the on-duty officials there. But the latter made it clear that there was no point talking to them as the order to disconnect supply to the entire complex had come from the top. Power would be restored only if the dues of the 36 flats, running into several thousands of rupees, was cleared at one go. The hapless residents immediately pooled money, got a demand draft prepared from a local bank and paid up the dues. Some three hours later, around 5.30 pm, power was restored at Nagarjuna Meadows. Talking to Bangalore Mirror, the residents alleged that it was out and out vindictiveness on the part of Bescom. There could be no rationale behind severing power supply to 318 flats when only 36 of them had defaulted. It was Bescom’s way to striking back at them for their crusade that recently led to the closure of its controversial diesel generation power plant on Doddaballapur Road at Yelahanka, located opposite to Nagarjuna Meadows. Commander C R Babu (Retd), a resident of the apartment complex, told BM, “Many of us had first mistaken it for regular maintenance. But after a couple of us called up the helpline, we realised that Bescom was being vindictive.” Explaining why he thought it was vindictiveness, Babu said, “All 318 flats in our complex have been provided with individual meters and Bescom can easily initiate action against individual defaulter. Previously too there had been instances when Bescom disconnected power to individual occupants for non-payment. This was the first time the entire apartment complex had to go without power for close to eight hours. You can’t punish everyone for the fault of a few. Disconnecting power to the entire complex was unconstitutional and violated fundamental rights. It is plain and simple that Bescom did it because we had opposed its polluting diesel plant opposite our apartment complex and got it closed down.” Another resident, who had rushed to the assistant executive engineer’s office on August 27, said, “The on-duty officials were in no mood to listen to us. What we saw was total high-handedness. They just told us that electricity bills running into several thousand were pending, and only after payment power would be restored. When we asked for details, they revealed 36 out of the 318 occupants had not paid their bills. They added they were just executing an order that had come from the top, and dared us to go to any agency to lodge a complaint. Held at point-blank, our association members had to pool money and rush to the bank to get the demand draft made for clearing the dues.” Residents residing in the complex rue that for no fault of theirs, they paid the price. “Not just we paid off the dues for the defaulter flats, we will now have to pay an additional fuel charge for running generators that day. Each of the four blocks has its own generator, with each consuming about 11 litres of fuel for an hour’s backup. On August 27, the generators ran for eight hours non-stop, guzzling more than 350 litres of diesel. Just imagine how difficult it had been for us to source such a huge quantity of fuel on such a short notice,” another resident of the complex said. Not aware, says Bescom Bescom told Bangalore Mirror it was not aware of the August 27 blackout at Nagarjuna Meadows. A senior official from C-7 Hebbal area, under whose jurisdiction the apartment complex comes, said, “We are not aware of the power supply being cut to Nagarjuna Meadows on August 27. However, we do have a system in which if a series of households are connected to a particular main, and even if just a few in that series default on payment, the entire main would get disconnected, with all households affected. Something like that must have happened in this case. Usually, we disconnect power only when a consumer has repeatedly defaulted on paying bills, and even then we abide by rules set down by the court.”
Posted on: Fri, 06 Sep 2013 11:16:06 +0000
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