Smart meters: Assam Power Distribution Company Limited (APDCL) officials interact with power consumers

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MANGALDAI: The Assam Power Distribution Company Limited (APDCL) authority has appealed to power consumers not to be worried about any enhanced bill amount in the new smart prepaid meter system compared to the previous post-paid meter reading mechanism.

Abhijit Sarma Baruah, Chief General Manager (retired), in-charge of the Public Relations of APDCL, Guwahati, Liton Dutta, AGM, Mangaldai Electrical Division and few other APDCL officials interacted with the consumers of Mangaldai at an awareness meeting held in this regard here at the Sanatan Dharma Sabha premises on Wednesday.

The meeting aimed at early resolving the grievances following the installation of the new smart prepaid meters replacing the existing post-paid meters. Several relevant issues, including doubtful bill amount, lack of knowledge in the present bill payment method, immediate disconnection of power supply due to failure in bill payment, long delay even after payment of the bill, assessment of the different slabs for power tariff, benefits of government subsidies, introduction of phone call service in addition to SMS service to make a consumer alert about his balance bill amount to avoid sudden disconnection etc. were raised by the participating consumers.

In reply to their queries, the APDCL officials assured of charging not a single extra penny without power being consumed in this new reading technology where there is no scope of manual distortion. They also vowed to hold many more such public awareness meetings under the supervision of Rakesh Kumar, MD of APDCL, as a part of bringing the company close to its consumers.

Liton Dutta, AGM, Mangaldai Electrical Division, while talking to The Sentinel, informed that so far 9,000 consumers out of the 15,000and under Mangaldai Electrical Subdivision have been covered under the new system while the process for others is on.

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