After the enforcement wing of the Punjab State Power Corporation Limited found discrepancies in the readings being taken by these meter readers, employed by an outsource billing company, the company terminated the employment of the meter readers and other employees held responsible for the discrepancies.
Chief Engineer (Enforcement) Er. Hira Lal Goyal said that after the matter of wrong readings being recorded by the meter readers of the M/s Competent Synergies Pvt. Ltd., a private billing company, came to his notice, the directions were issued to the teams of different zones to carry out checkings in different circles of their respective zones.
He shared that in central zone Ludhiana, eight squads carried out checking in four circles and found that employees of the private company were found responsible for concealing readings, recording incorrect readings, and other irregularities in meter readings.Therefore, 22 meter readers, two circle managers and a zonal manager of M/s Competent Synergies Pvt. Ltd were terminated from their jobs.
Similarly, the enforcement wing of Jalandhar re-checked the meter readings of the consumers the next day of the readings recorded by the meter readers and found discrepancies.For instance, in the case of domestic account number 3001379219, the meter reading was recorded as 15,912 units during the check, whereas the meter reader, Navjeet Singh, had previously recorded it as 15,851 units.
Similarly, for another domestic account number 3001384136, the reading was recorded as 37707 units during the check, whereas it had been recorded as 37642 units by meter reader Bobby Sharma. As a result, both meter readers were found to have inaccurately reported readings and they were subsequently terminated from their jobs.
Furthermore, during checking at the M.E. Lab, the meter reader of 6673 units of domestic account number 3002412183 was concealed by meter reader Joti Lal and his employment was subsequently terminated.
The department has also recovered Rs. 57,678/- from the consumers in Jalandhar in relation to this discrepancy in the electricity bill.Er. Goyal said that the enforcement wing will continue to conduct similar checks in various areas to ensure compliance and accuracy in meter readings.