Inflation in Electricity bills in Bhatkal: HESCOM assures Vartha Bharati of rectifying all errors
Bhatkal: In what has come as a relief for the people of Bhatkal who received inflated electricity bills during the COVID-19 lockdown period, the HESCOM has assured it will rectify all the errors made by its systems.
A local organization led by a team of social activists including Abu Hajar, Ruwaifa Kola, and Rabee Ruknuddin and guided by local leaders had carried a campaign to identify the households which had received inflated bills during the lockdown.
The campaign was launched after residents raised initial complaints on social media groups about their grievances.
In the campaign, the activists studied electricity bill cycles of 31 houses of various areas in Bhatkal and concluded that there was unprecedented inflation in the bills. A virtual press conference was subsequently called by the organization detailing their findings of the study.
A report was published in Vartha Bharati over the issue on Sunday covering the issue. The HESCOM officials were unavailable for any comment on the matter while publishing the report.
On Monday, after repeated attempts, Vartha Bharati sub-editor Ismail Zaorez reached out to the Managing Director of the power supply company who took note of the report and materials of the study provided to him and took up the matter with Assistant Engineer of Bhatkal Division directing him to look into the matter.
The In-Charge Assistant Engineer, Mr. Kamble soon contacted Vartha Bharati over the matter and assured that all the grievances and errors that had resulted in inflation of bills will be rectified. Kamble admitted that the systems of HESCOM had failed to apply the slab system on the bills during the lockdown period as bills of three months were issued at once.
Kamble said some of the issues were already rectified and the consumers whose issues were not rectified yet, can visit the HESCOM office. He assured that the slab system will be applied on their bills and the consumers will be asked to pay the sum of the amount with an actual meter reading of the respective months.
On being asked about the commercial entities being charged exorbitantly even when the shops and factories were completely closed due to the lockdown, Kamble said “As the shops were closed, we were unable to visit and check the meter readings. We had to issue average bills for them. Now since the shops are open, we will visit them and new bills according to their actual meter reading will be issued with them. They need not panic about it all the issues will be sorted”.
Kamble was also of the opinion that the consumption of households had naturally gone up as people, due to the lockdown had remained at homes, which automatically escalated the usage of appliances like fans, ACs, and TVs. He however said there was an error in the application of the slab system on bills and that had resulted in inflation of bills.
“People can visit HESCOM offices, and all their grievances will be sorted. This is our assurance” Kamble told Vartha Bharati over a phone call.
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MediaOne TV Facebook page restored after block linked to ‘government request’
Kochi: The official Facebook page of Malayalam news channel MediaOne TV has been restored after being blocked without prior notice, the broadcaster said on Wednesday.
The channel was quoted by Maktoob as saying that the restriction was lifted automatically, with Meta Platforms informing it that the action had been taken following a “government request” which has now expired or been reversed.
The development came shortly after the channel approached the Kerala High Court challenging the blocking of its page, terming it arbitrary and in violation of legal provisions and judicial precedents. The High Court had issued notice to Meta via email hours before the restriction was withdrawn.
In its petition, the channel said access to its Facebook page had been restricted for users in India without citing any specific content or alleged violation. It contended that while individual posts may be taken down under applicable a rule, blocking an entire page goes beyond the scope of such measures.
The incident followed an earlier action taken against the channel in 2022, when the Ministry of Information and transmitting prohibited it from transmitting. It cited national security concerns regarding the Ministry of Home Affairs' refusal of security clearance.
The Supreme Court of India in April 2023 set aside the ban, observing that national security claims cannot be made without substantive basis and that criticism of government policies does not render a media outlet anti-national.
