Members of an electricity department association today held a demonstration, seeking revoking of the suspension of the three power officials over "inflated" bill of Rs 77 crore issued to a consumer in Faridabad.
The employees association held the protest in Faridabad and claimed that the action against the three electricity department officials had been taken in "haste" and "without holding an inquiry" thus allegedly denying the trio a chance to present their side of the story.
Addressing the protesting employees in Faridabad, a leader of the association said, "why should employees be punished for glitches in the software. It is not their fault."
He demanded that suspension orders be revoked immediately.
"Suspension orders were issued without inquiry, which is not fair," he alleged.
He said that even if "inflated bill" was issued, it doesn't mean that the consumer concerned had to actually pay it.
"After it was brought to our notice, the bill was corrected and a new one handed over to him," he claimed.
The protesters also raised slogans against the state government.
An electricity consumer in Faridabad had recently received a bill of over Rs 77 crore from Dakshin Haryana Bijli Vitran Nigam after which it suspended three officials yesterday for issuing "an inflated erroneous bill".
The Nigam had suspended Vikram Singh, Sub-Divisional Officer, Bairam, Commercial Assistant and Pritam Singh, Lower Divisional Clerk with immediate effect "for issuing an inflated erroneous bill of about Rs 77 crore to a consumer of Faridabad," a spokesperson of the Nigam had said yesterday.
Criticising power department officials for issuing the "inflated bill" for the two-month period ending October 31, the consumer Jagpal had said, he had been "regularly" paying his bills and the "astronomical amount" had come as a "shock" to him and his family.
Notably, this is not for the first time when consumers in Haryana have been issued inflated bills. A pan-seller in Gohana town in Sonipat district had got a bill of Rs 132 crore in October last year.
