Newa Pulwama residents aghast over hike in Power bills
Pulwama: The residents of Newa area of south Kashmir’s Pulwama district are up in against Power Development Department (PDD) for alleged arbitrary hike in their monthly electricity power tariff.
The residents said the authorities are resorting to frequent hikes in power bills thereby making people of the area to suffer.
“The authorities have inflated bills after enhancing consumption load without carrying out any survey,” said Ghulam Nabi, a local resident of Newa.
He said that some bills were increased from Rs 570 to 750 per month.
“We are facing huge inconvenience due to the erratic power supply,” he said.
The residents said that daily unscheduled and frequent power cuts take a heavy toll on them while on other hand the PDD was giving hike in their monthly bbills.
“We were shocked after we received the latest bills. Both load agreement and bill amount has been increased without taking consent from the consumers,” said Sajad Ahmad , another resident.
He said people living in the area are financially weak and this hike in bills will add burden on them.
“If government is increasing monthly tariffs then they must upgrade the infrastructure as well. The power lines are tied with trees as the department did not provide adequate electric poles in the area,” he said.
The residents appealed to the PDD to reconsider their decision to hike the monthly bills especially in the prevailing tough times.
“We hope that a realistic and compassionate view will be taken by the PDD in this regard,” the residents said.
