Nashik: Citizens have demanded waiver of inflated electricity bills. A memorandum was given to District Collector Suraj on behalf of Samvidhanpremi Nashikkar organisation. The activists sought immediate waiver of electricity bills during the lockout period.
“The lockout was initiated due to the outbreak of Corona. So the citizens were staying at home. The lockout was relaxed from 1 August. Most of the citizens remained employed for 4 months. At the same time, the MSEDCL had issued inflated bills with an average of four months without taking electricity meter readings,” the memorandum submitted to the District Collector stated.
The four-month bill was paid collectively after July. During the four-month layoffs, citizens had no means of income. Therefore, it will not be possible to pay electricity bills. These four months’ electricity bills should be completely waived, it demanded.
The tariff hike made post 1st April 2020 should be revoked and the payment from July onwards should be given as per meter reading and without calculating four months’ average bills, it said. The memorandum also sought waiver of interest charges as panelty on electricity bills.
Also permission should be given to pay bill amount in three equal instalments if payable is beyond Rs 5000. It also appealed to the state government to waive electricity payments at least during the Corona period.
“If this is not possible for the government, then the deposit paid by the citizens in their electricity bill should be deducted,” it said suggesting an alternate option. The Mahavikas Aghadi government should take a quick decision, it added.
Activists Kiran Mohite, Raju Desale, Asif Sheikh, Mahadev Khude, Adv. Prabhakar Vaichale, Santosh Jadhav were present.
