हरियाणा में सरकारी बिजली कंपनियों द्वारा हर साल ग्राहकों को करोड़ों रु का चूना लगाने का मामला हरियाणा इलेक्ट्रिसिटी रेगुलेटरी कमीशन लाने के बाद अब हरियाणा सरकार व भारत सरकार के उपभोक्ता मंत्रालय के संज्ञान में भी लाया गया। Issues of gross violations of HERC Regulations by Haryana Electricity DISCOMs brought to the notice of Haryana Electricity Regulatory Commission, Govt of Haryana and Department of Consumer Affairs, Govt. of India

A couple of posts have recently brought on the blog recently about the deceptive trade practices of Electricity DISCOMs in Haryana. The post was uploaded in this blog by the author for wilful gross violations of the Regulations of Haryana Electricity Regulatory Commission mandated as per provisions laid in the Electricity Act. These Regulations including approved tariff structures are binding onto the DISCOMs.  The issues of gross violations as identified in the post were proposed to be intimated to the Regulator i.e Haryana Electricity Regulatory Commission (HERC) for appropriate intervention. The violations have been brought to the perusal of HERC for taking appropriate action through an email dtd. 22nd July 2020 and 30th July 2020. The content of the communications with Haryana Electricity Regulatory Commission was also published in the blog on 31st July 2020, the link of the post is as below:

http://skvirmani-jagograhak.blogspot.com/2020/07/issues-of-gross-violations-of-herc.html

As can be seen in the post dtd. 31st July 2020, the scam of deceiving the electricity consumers by the electricity Discoms in Haryana was estimated to be Rs. 1,200 crores with an annual addition at Rs. 30 crores per year as there was no statistics available with the author of the blog. The number of connections released by these two Discoms i.e DHBVN and UHBVN under DS category is not available and hence these estimates stands revised and accordingly the deceptive trade practices of the electricity Discoms was also brought to the notice of Director, Govt of Haryana and Secretary, Department of Consumer Affairs, Govt of Delhi through emails on their official email ids on 2nd August 2020 and 5th August 2020 as quoted below:

Email dtd. 2^nd August 2020 (Department of Consumer Affairs, Govt of India)

                                              Director, Govt of Haryana

हरियाणा में नए बिजली कनेक्शन देने में सर्विस केबल देने के नाम पर क्या भ्रष्टाचार चल रहा है ? Is there a scam in providing new electricity connection in Haryana?

Sub: Petition to Haryana Electricity Regulatory Commission against Electricity DISCOMs (DHBVN/ UHBVN) for deceiving of the  consumers by deceptive trade practices in gross violations of HERC Regulations affecting all the consumers across the State of Haryana

1. While the attached documents to this mail are attached explaining in details about the gross violations by Electricity Discoms (DHBVN/UHBVN) deceiving all the consumers of the State of Haryana, I am forwarding herewith the email sent by me to Haryana Electricity Regulatory Commission an apex Regulatory body for the electricity distribution in the State of Haryana. The violations, as brought out in the attached documents, are substantiated as the Sales Manual being followed by the DICOMs are itself in violations of HERC Regulations. In view of the adhering of their distribution to the consumers in Haryana is as per their own sales manual, it can be said that all the consumers residing in the State are being deceived. 

2. The Discoms are demanding consumers for provisioning of service cables despite the payment being charged by Discom in their demand notice and HERC explicitly states in their regulations that the service connection fee being demanded in the Demand Note includes the provisioning of service cables by the Discoms. There are more than 40 lakhs domestic consumers and estimating the charges of service cable on an average of Rs. 3,000/- per connection, the total amount so far through deceptive trade practices amounts to more than Rs. 1,200 crores and if we consider a minimum of one lakh connection being added per annum, it comes to Rs. 30 crores per year. 

3. DHBVN even fabricated a document of installation report without providing any connection to the consumer. It has degraded the image and trust bestowed by citizens on PSUs. 

I would not repeat the points already covered in the attached documents for brevity and request you to kindly pursue the same. I would appeal to your Department looking after the interest of consumers of the State of Haryana to kindly pursue the same and forward the petition under your signature to Haryana State Electricity Regulatory Commission for appropriate actions against the DISCOMs as per provisions of Electricity Act and HERC regulations. The email sent by me to HERC is also attached as a pdf document.

Email dtd. 5^th August 2020

Petition to Haryana Electricity Regulatory Commission, Govt of Haryana and Govt of India in respect of gross violation by electricity discoms in Haryana deceiving all the electricity consumers across the State

Please refer to my last emails dtd. 22nd July 2020 and 2nd August 2020 to the Department of Consumer Affairs and Govt of Haryana bringing to the notice about gross violations of the regulations mandated by HERC for the electricity Discoms in Haryana deceiving all the electricity consumers of Haryana State. The violations continued disrespecting to the Commissions directives, tariff orders, Electricity Supply Code despite bringing it to their kind attention about such gross violations. Even some of the communications being endorsed to the Hon'able Commissions as well as the quotes from the judgements of Electricity Ombudsman, Haryana were disregarded and their deception trade practices kept of unabated. 

2. There is a piece of additional information which compelled me to add onto the petition as submitted above. 

3. As per the statistical information available on the web-site of DHBVN and UHBVN as tabulated below for 2017-18 and 2018-19, the total deception to the consumers across the Haryana comes to Rs. 81.55 crores and Rs. 122.66 crores. 

Total Connections under DS Category

S.No.		March’2017	March’2018	March’2019
1	DHBVN	24,26,347	25,94,361,	27,98,683
2	UHBVN	21,42,964	22,46,782	23,51,324
	Total Connections	45,69,311	47,41,143	51,50,007

 Growth 2017-18 : 2,71,832   (Estimated Deception: Rs. 81.55 crores)

              2018-19: 4,08,864    (Estimated Deception: Rs. 122.66 crores)

4. If we consider total connections issued by the two discoms under the category of DS Supply as 51,50,000 as on March 2019, the total deception comes to Rs. 1,545 crores

5. In addition to what previously has been appealed to the Hon'ble Commission, the Commission may also directing the two DISCOMs to refund the excess amount so collected by the Discoms by deceiving the consumers wherever possible and if it is not possible to get the amount transferred from the erring Discoms to Govt of Haryana/ Govt of India for Consumer Welfare Fund in addition to any other penal actions as may be deemed fit. 

6. A copy of my main petition of 22nd July 2020 and 2nd August 2020 is attached in pdf for ready reference please. 

 Copy to: Director, Govt of Haryana

              Secretary, Department of Consumer Affairs, Govt of India

A  campaign has also been initiated for online signatures at the link https://bit.ly/31hmItk All are requested to kindly cooperate with me and support me by signing online to bring these deceptive trade practices of the electricity Discoms to the logical conclusion with relief to the deceived consumers.