PANAJI
The Electricity Department estimates that close to 40,000 electricity meters of domestic consumers are located inside their homes and inaccessible to its staff deputed to note down power consumption readings for billing purposes.
Senior officials handling the matter said, the State has 7.41 lakh domestic electricity consumers of which over 5 per cent have their meters installed indoors or in places where meter reading is not possible.
In many such cases, the houses are shut and the owners live elsewhere, outside the State or abroad, the officials said, adding that since the department's staff cannot take the energy consumption readings, they are billed on the basis of average consumption computed from previous bills.
Now, it has been made mandatory for these consumers to relocate their meters outside their homes at a place which will be easily accessible to the department's meter readers.
Consumers have a November 28 deadline to comply and will have to face a penal disconnection process if they do not comply. These consumers have also been cautioned that they must ensure that the meter placed outdoors is not exposed to rain or adverse weather conditions.
Among the reasons the department's officials cite for the move is that it incurs substantial losses in the man hours lost in the process of meter readers going to these homes but returning without the current meter reading.
Another reason, they say, is average billing could be much below the actual energy consumed, resulting in losses and also hampering audits. Meter-tampering by removing the seal is yet another reason they cite.
Chief Electrical Engineer, Stephen Fernandes, had issued the order and publicised it through a public notice in late May mandating the relocation of meters outdoors by November 28.
The notice had appealed to such consumers whose meters are indoors and inaccessible to the meter readers to contact the officials at their respective sub-stations mentioned in their bills for meter relocation.
The notice also warns of possible disconnection if the November 28 deadline is not respected.
