KUMUD JENAMANI
Jamshedpur, Dec 21: While the Jharkhand Bijli Vitaran Nigam Ltd (JBVNL) have upped the ante to detect power thefts in the Jamshedpur circle of the discom, several potential consumers are baffled to find their applications for power connection going haywire.
Despite furnishing the necessary documents and depositing the required security deposit, applications for the new connection are being rejected.
A case in point relates to one Mohammad Mohzabin who has to languish without power at his residential flat at Road No. 7 in Bagansahi of Azadnagar area in Mango.
“I had applied online for a power connection at my new home at Bagansahi on May 9, 2022, having deposited Rs 7,406 as the security deposit. But a month later I was intimated about the rejection of my application. Ever since I got the rejection letter I and my family have to go without power,” deplored Mohzabin.
The Bagansahi resident said there are 11 other flat owners in the same apartment where only one flat owner has a one-kilowatt connection. He pointed out that whereas three or four flat owners are managing by sharing powerline from the lone JBVNL consumer, about half-a-dozen others have consumed the power by getting the energy meters improperly, having made abortive attempts to get the power connection through the proper channel.
There was a comment in the rejection letter to Mohzabin and it was “additional transformer required”.
It may be mentioned here that a JBVNL pole stands just 15 ft away from the apartment in question and several consumers have been provided with a connection through that pole.
Residents of another apartment, Ganga Prabhabati Complex, on Dimna Road in Mango, had faced a similar problem caused by the JBVNL’s callousness, but they were provided with the power connection after extorting heavy penalty.
Executive engineer, JBVNL, Mango division, Vishal Kumar under whose jurisdiction Bagansahi area falls while talking to this correspondent said, “Such online application like that of Mohammad Mohzabin is entertained by junior engineer only. Let Mohzabin come to my office, I will look into it.”
Significantly, of late separate teams of JBVNL officials, including senior ones have started carrying out raids in residential premises for the detection of power theft. On average, five residents are being booked for power theft daily and a heavy penalty is being slapped on them. But the senior officials are hardly paying attention to the potential bonafide consumers whose applications are either being rejected or held up.
