The casual approach being adopted by the official of the Power Development Department (PDD) was again exposed after a family living Below Poverty Line (BPL) received an electricity bill of Rs 1,02,920.
Interestingly, the family has no power connection in their mud house situated near Line of Control (LoC) in Ari village of Mendhar sub-division of Jammu and Kashmir's border district of Poonch.
After officers of the Power Development Department have not paid any heed to the problem of the poor man, Mohammad Tazeem, head of the family, approached local social activist advocate Nadeem Khan who took up the issue with higher-ups in the administration.
"This episode exposed casual approach of the department", Khan told The International Business Times, adding, "the poor man does not have power connection in his house but he received electricity bill above Rs one lakh".
"We have brought this matter to the notice of the higher authorities to stop harassment of the poor man", Khan said and regretted that authorities have been harassing poor people without any fault.
Sub-Divisional Magistrate Mendhar orders inquiry
Taking serious note of the alleged harassment of a poor man by PDD officials, the SDM Mendhar Sahil Jandial ordered an inquiry in this case. "I have asked Assistant Executive Engineer (AEE) to conduct an inquiry and submit the report within a week", Jandial said and assured that the complaint of the complainant would be properly addressed.
He said that officers of the PDD have been asked to visit the village and verify whether the complainant has a power connection or not.
I repeatedly approached officers but to no avail, says the poor man
Mohammad Tazeem said that he has approached officers of the PDD to solve his issues but nothing has been done. The poor man has earlier asked the authorities to cancel the electricity connection in his name because there is no power connection in his house.
A neighbour of Tazeem informed the media that the poor man has been living just 100 meters away from his house. "I have never seen the power in his house.
Not even a single electricity pole has been installed near his house so there is no question of getting power", he said and asked the PDD authorities to rectify the mistake to stop harassment of the helpless man.
