A public grievance meeting held by TANGEDCO at Valluvar Kottam seems to be a failure as only one consumer turned up for it. Many consumers were not aware of the meeting as the corporation failed to advertise it.
The meeting scheduled for Monday was to hear grievances of consumers in Mylapore division. Lone consumer N. Raghuram Singh from Nungambakkam came seeking to know whether he should get any permission for installing solar system in his home.
“To cope up with the power cuts, I wanted to install a solar system in my residence. I approached the local Tangedco office to know whether I have to get any permission from them to install. But the local officials are not giving any clear-cut answers in this regard. Hence I attended the meeting,” he said.
T. Selvaraj, former Tangedco employee and president of Association of Transparency and Anti Corruption said that very few consumers turn up for the meeting. “Main reason for such low turnouts is lack of awareness among the consumers about such meetings. No publicity is being made for the meeting” he said, adding that the people are also getting their work done by paying bribes to the electricity workers rather than running pillar to post.
N. Krishnasamy, Superintending engineer (SE), central circle of Tangedco, who chaired the grievance day meeting, said that low turnout for the meeting was due to the consumers getting their work done by approaching the assistant engineers (AE) who would be available to redress their grievances.
“The AEs will receive complaints from the consumers from 8.30 am to 11.30 am. Most of their grievances will be addressed by him. If they are not satisfied, they will attend grievance day meeting,” he said.
In order to mitigate consumers’ hardships, the grievance day meeting are being held by the Superintending Engineer concerned once in a month in each division of the circle.
“We display the date of the grievance day in advance on the notice boards of the division offices. You can also contact any of our offices to know about the grievance day meeting. You will get your grievances redressed at the grievance day meetings,” a senior official of Tangedco said.
The official said that besides, chief engineers/ distribution region are holding conferences with consumer organisations.