Coimbatore: Irate public who have had to pay extra charges on their electricity bills due to the server being down at the Electricity Board (EB) office on the last day of bill payment, have slammed the EB for their carelessness.
Coimbatore: Irate public who have had to pay extra charges on their electricity bills due to the server being down at the Electricity Board (EB) office on the last day of bill payment, have slammed the EB for their carelessness.
At the Peelamedu East Divisional Electricity Office located opposite to the Peelamedu police station, people had queued up on Monday, in front of the office to pay their EB bills since it was the last day for payment without extra charges being levied for late payment. Women, elderly people and others waited for a long time in front of the office but had to return home without paying the bills with the EB server issue unresolved until evening.
Usually, when the bill is not paid on the last day, a fine amount is added to the bill even if the bill is paid on the next day. The public are upset over the fact that they had to pay the fine today due to the carelessness of the EB Department.
Commenting on the issue, Consumer Voice Logu, a social activist in Coimbatore opined that in case of the server being down in EB office, the manual system will be implemented. Yet, many of the officers in the EB office do not do that and instead make customers wait until the server is fixed. "As it was the last day yesterday, the consumers who had arrived at the EB office to pay their bills were unable to pay but are being forced by the EB staff to pay the bill with the fine, the next day," he said.
Consumer Voice Logu requested the Electricity Board to take immediate action to prevent such frequent server shutdowns and in the event of one such instance, to direct its staff to provide a handwritten receipt for bill payments.