Workshop for officials to address consumer grievances effectively held
Consumer complaints can be effectively resolved at the officer level itself, thereby avoiding legal escalation, said Ramesh Bandisidde Gowda, MLA and chairman of Chamundeshwari Electricity Supply Corporation (CESC).
He was addressing a one-day legal workshop jointly organised by the Karnataka Electricity Regulatory Commission (KERC) and the CESC at the Karnataka Power Transmission Corporation Engineers' Association auditorium at Kadakola near here. The workshop was attended by chairpersons, members, and officials of various consumer grievance redressal forums.
This workshop is aimed at equipping officials with legal understanding to address consumer grievances effectively, Mr. Bandisidde Gowda said.
'When consumers encounter problems, they generally approach local officials. If those officials handle the issues with seriousness, most complaints can be resolved swiftly without reaching courts or regulatory bodies,' he observed.
He said that failure by officials to fulfill their responsibilities often compels consumers to seek legal remedies. 'We have seen several such instances. However, if every officer works with dedication, the number of complaints reaching the commission or judiciary can be reduced. Due to the commitment of both officials and elected representatives, our region has witnessed a decline in grievance cases,' he claimed.
Inaugurating the workshop, KERC member H.K. Jagadish highlighted the importance of legal literacy among officials. Electricity is indispensable in today's world. Understanding the evolution of electricity laws helps in resolving consumer complaints more efficiently, he said.
Mr. Jagadish traced the history of electricity laws in India, noting that the first law was enacted in 1887 during the British rule with a focus on safety. Today, the electricity sector functions under the Electricity Act of 2003. With power being generated from multiple sources, consumers have now become central stakeholders in the legal and regulatory framework besides transmission and distribution subjects, he added.
KERC member Javed Akhtar pointed out that there is a lack of public awareness about grievance redressal forums. 'Many consumers visit local offices to resolve their issues but remain unaware of formal complaint forums. This information gap discourages consumers from filing complaints,' he said.
He urged that all Escoms should publish complaint procedures prominently on their websites, mobile apps, and notice boards for the benefit of public.
KERC secretary Siddeshwar, Mysuru zone chief engineer D.J. Divakar, Hassan zone chief engineer Harish Kumar, CESC chief financial officer G. Renuka, and other senior officials were present. Technical presentations were conducted after the inauguration.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Time of India
an hour ago
- Time of India
Man from the south who breathed fire against the British empire
'If Indians join together and breathe hard enough, our breath will be enough to blow away the foreigners,' said Subramania Sivam, who called himself Swatanthiranandar, or one who delights in freedom The part of Marina Beach opposite Presidency College, today just another stretch of sand for walkers and vendors, was once christened 'Tilagar Thidal' by Subramania Sivam, in honour of his political guru, Bal Gangadhar Tilak. Tired of too many ads? go ad free now But who was Subramania Sivam, the relatively unsung freedom fighter who made the British nervous? Though Sivam spoke of himself as a wayfarer who had the opportunity of conducting the 'coronation of Swaraj' in Tirunelveli district, such was the incandescent power and incendiary impact of his Tamil speeches against British rule, that the colonial regime sought to stamp him out of existence. But is there an empire that can quell the spirit of a man who called himself Swatanthiranandar, or one who delights in freedom? Sivam (1884-1925) has been seen as an 'enigmatic ascetic' who, through his patriotic speeches, made Tirunelveli district in the deep south reverberate to the revolutionary frequency of West Bengal in the 'extremist' phase of the Indian freedom struggle. Sivam, sometimes referred to as Siva, was born in Oct 1884 in Batlagundu, a village known as the gateway to the Kodaikanal hills. He appeared to inherit his hardy physique and free-spirited nature from his father. In his early years, he was well cared for by his maternal grandfather, the village munsiff of nearby Ayyampalayam. But things changed when Sivam moved with his parents to Madurai for his secondary education. It was when the years of poverty began. The family later relocated to Trivandrum to benefit from the free dining hall (oottuppura) offered by the Travancore Samasthanam. As a strapping youth who was called a bayilvan (wrestler, fighter), Sivam also gained mastery over Tamil and English though he failed in his matriculation exams in a Coimbatore school. To an English teacher who liked to repeat, 'What I want is common sense', he is said to have replied, 'Exactly so, Sir', cheekily pointing to the alternate meaning of 'want' as lack. Tired of too many ads? go ad free now Sivam got into bad company in his teens and gained the temporary infamy of being a brawler and bully. But in 1902, Sivam met Sadananda Swami at Trivandrum. The Swami, as Ramanatha Menon, had worked in the Kolar gold mines before becoming a Raja Yogi and Ayurvedic healer. Having taken refuge at Sadananda Swami's feet, Sivam remained with him like his shadow till Jan 12, 1907. It was as if the aimless ship of his life had finally found its anchorage in the presence of the saint who added Sivam to his name, symbolising union with the divine. Ironically, this would only be the beginning of the greatest challenges and extreme tribulations that Sivam would face in life. The speeches of Thakur Kahan Chandra Verma, an Arya Samaji speaker from Lahore, calling for uncompromising nationalism ignited a blaze of patriotism in Sivam's heart and he became a passionate speaker himself. 'If we Indians join together and breathe hard enough, our breath will be enough to blow away the foreigners,' he would tell his audience. When the Travancore Samasthanam expelled him from the realm, he moved into Cochin and finally to Tirunelveli district, walking all the way while spreading the message of Swarajya in villages and towns through his fearless, frank and fery speeches. It was at this time that V O Chidambaram Pillai, by then the most influential leader in the south of the extremist faction of the Congress, and native entrepreneur who had founded the Swadeshi Steam Navigation Company to compete with British business interests, experienced the electrifying quality of Sivam's oratory and co-opted him in his nationalistic campaigns. Together, they mobilised labourers of the Coral Textile Mills in Tuticorin and won concessions for them from their British masters in Feb 1908. After the duo disregarded a ban and held a public meeting and procession on March 9 to mark the release of Bipin Chandra Pal who was incarcerated for refusing to divulge the identity of the writers of 'seditious' articles in his 'Bandemataram', district collector L M Wynch and his impetuous subordinate Robert Ashe had them arrested on charges of sedition, leading to large-scale riots in Tirunelveli. Curiously, while the first accused (Sivam) got 10 years transportation, the second accused (VOC) got a double transportation for life (transportation meaning being locked up in the brutal Cellular Jail in the Andaman Islands). Appeals got the transportation part scored out but they languished in jail for more than four years. The jail terms and the harshness of prison conditions reserved for them, wrecked their lives. Sivam was struck with leprosy. But his wife Meenakshi, to whom he had been married when he was 15, got to meet him in prison, and asked him for the means by which she could lead her life. He wrote his spiritual masterpiece 'Sachidananda Sivam' for her, the book being a guide for the higher life of divine seeking. After his release on Nov 2, 1912, he started the monthly 'Gnanabanu' with his wife as publisher. Meenakshi, however, died of tuberculosis on May 15, 1915, aged 27. For ten more years, Sivam trudged on despite his worsening health, training youth in nation building activities, and planning to build a temple to Bharatha Matha in Papparapatti, now in Dharmapuri district, where stands a memorial for this selfless and fearless patriot, who perhaps is the first great Tamil orator in modern times to capture the imagination of the masses. (The writer is a journalist and author) Email your feedback to
Scroll.in
an hour ago
- Scroll.in
A new book recounts the formation of the Berlin Indian Independence Committee in 1914
The Germans exhibited no particular interest in India before 1886. That year, they established consular relations with India by opening their first-ever embassy in Calcutta (the capital of British India then). Later, they sent only their best officers, adept at foreign dealings, to take care of affairs with India. They were in a strong position in Europe while Britain stood isolated despite its conquests, guarding its own, lacking the trust of its peers, amongst whom they failed to generate neither faith nor friendship. Along with their suspicions about Russia, France and Japan, Britain was also wary about Turkey with its Pan-Islamism, which invoked the trust of the 85 million Muslims of India. The empire feared the Muslim community and had so far kept them out of the army, reposing its trust in Sikhs, who had not forsaken it in 1857, and the Gurkhas for their loyalty. Muslims in India respected the caliphate and there had been reports of people from the Ottoman Empire instigating Indian Muslims to revolt against British rule. Turkey had just won the war against Greece with the Greeks accepting an armistice on 20 May 1897. The sound of celebrations had reverberated in India too. The Muslim majority in India was angry with the Queen for not supporting the caliphate in the war against Greece and later favouring the Armenians in another conflict. Britain did try a rapprochement of sorts by sending medical missions to Turkey and helping them out with financial aid. But whether this was enough for them to garner the sympathies of their Islamic counterparts would be seen later. It was a question of millions of Muslims who could be easily aroused and angered by outside influences. There was another fear of Russia conquering Turkey and then taking along the Muslim population to invade India. The Germans were keeping a tab on these fears but not meddling with them or provoking them to raise the intensity. Germany, at least on the face of it, did not seem as if they desired India's freedom. The emperor of Germany, Kaiser Wilhelm II, was always full of praise for Lord Curzon. He had a motive that would be revealed later. The idea of the white man's supremacy was not lost on the Kaiser and he firmly believed in it. The maintenance and expansion of the British Empire was a dream Curzon visualised with his eyes wide open. He would not let the Russians, the French, the Japanese or even the Germans have a share of what he deemed was the right of the empire. The Persian Gulf was one such area of his interest where he would not let others carry out operations. He had even extracted a secret agreement from Mubarak, the Sheikh of Kuwait, to not let any foreign power conduct operations in the Persian Gulf without British consent. The Kaiser's praise for Lord Curzon, and his desire to have some kind of control over India, was known to Britain and they were wary of the Germans. They did not trust the Germans or their word. There was only an outward show of love and affection between the two nations. The Germans, when they started with their expansionist programme, needed British help to create business in Indian territory. They did not want to antagonise the empire by working against them but on the contrary, they had extended a hand of help when India suffered a famine in early 1900. The Kaiser pledged a sum of half a million marks by sending a telegram to the Queen and Lord Curzon. Lord Curzon too did not lose the opportunity to thank the Kaiser publicly for this generous offer, but this kindness did not wash away the distrust from the mind of the empire. And though the Kaiser wanted to erase this British antipathy at least from India, it was not successful. Germany wanted Lord Curzon to allow Indian immigrant labour to settle in German East Africa, their African colony that was reeling from a labour shortage. This area, spread around 3,85,000 square miles, amounted to twice the size of the German Empire in Europe. Here they had plans to grow rubber, sisal, cotton and coffee. The African wars had taken a toll on the men, leading to a crunch in manpower. The Germans wanted to employ Indian labour to change the prospects of this land, but their hopes could not materialise because the final approval from the viceroy never arrived. They were able to establish illegal colonies of Indian labourers with the help of the Aga Khan, the influential Muslim religious figure. Lord Curzon was so firm in his disapproval that when he came to know about this proposed plan, the Aga Khan had to let it go because there were issues that could not be settled and Indian immigrants could not be accommodated in German East Africa at that time. In the coming years, Indians did follow the Germans and ended up making East Africa their home, adding to the economy by working as traders and artisans. The Kaiser also needed Curzon to approve the high-profile Baghdad Railway project in the Persian Gulf area, a possession very dear to Curzon where he wanted no intrusion despite the reservations of the British authorities in London, who deemed this obsession unnecessary. The Kaiser did get the nod for the Baghdad Railway in the area of the Persian Gulf, which now saw Russian activity as well, but this project would run into difficulties after the Entente powers resolved their differences. Britain, in 1905, included the safeguard of India in its already continuing treaty with Japan. The issues with Russia too were being sorted out as it no longer posed a threat and assured support against any infringement on Indian territory by the signing of a treaty. Thus, the trio of England, Russia and Japan grew strong, painting a grim picture for Germany, who felt that it was being targeted by them along with other European nations for being too ambitious and carrying on its expansionist policies. The Austro-Hungarians were the only ones it could count on as its friends. In the later part of 1907, Germany's fears about this deliberate encirclement policy proved right when England raised fresh objections to the continuation of the Baghdad Railway project. Britain wanted the last stretch of the railways to be handed over to them because it feared that it posed a threat to Indian security. The Kaiser had objected and rebuked them for this folly. The makings of war had begun. Another German fear was the use of the railway for sending Turkish troops into Indian territory in the scenario of a conflict and Turkey lending support to England. That Pan-Islamic Turkey would seek the support of its ardent Muslim followers in India was feared by Britain as well as Russia. The Germans were keeping a tab on the growing friendship between Britain and Russia after the opening of the Russian consulate in Calcutta and the favours being bestowed on them. Along with it, they saw the rise of Indian nationalism, which evoked a curious interest in them. Their prestige rose in the eyes of the Indian Muslim who connected the dots by placing Turkish-German friendliness on an exalted frame. In the Greco-Turkish War, when Turkey won, Kaiser Wilhelm supported them. He negotiated with Greece for the autonomy of one of their islands and refrained from working out an armistice, defying the diktats of Queen Victoria. This attitude of Germany was seen as a sympathetic gesture towards the Turks. Different camps were in the making – the Entente powers or Allied powers versus the Central powers. If Germany had enjoyed the pre-war period with aplomb by making great strides into the Indian economy, garnering business of DM105 million in exports, now was the time to rethink its strategy. The Indian plight from which it had disengaged itself, being a votary of imperialism, suddenly began to haunt them. Educated Indians impressed them with their prowess and intelligence. Indian oppression was beginning to look real and their fight for rights appeared just. There was a sea change in German attitude as the clouds of war began hovering over the horizon, making them see an enemy's enemy as their friend. The Germans would eventually invest themselves in India's independence struggle. Now that war was on the cards, it wanted to weaken the defence of the enemy at all costs, hoping to win or at least expecting a rapprochement from the enemy side. Indian revolutionaries working in London, Paris and other European cities were being hounded by British authorities putting a check on their activities. They drifted towards Berlin, which by now was ready to welcome them. Help from Germany was initially sought by Bengali revolutionaries and groups such as the Dacca Anushilan Samiti and Jugantar, but the right time for this association coupled with German interest only arrived after the initiation of the First World War in July 1914. The Indian National Party, later known as the Berlin Indian Independence Committee, came into existence towards the end of 1914 with Virendranath Chattopadhyaya, who was studying in Germany in early 1914, as its architect. Virendranath Chattopadhyaya was closely involved with Shyamaji Krishnavarma's India House earlier and was a close friend of Savarkar.
News18
an hour ago
- News18
British Entrepreneur Bids Emotional Farewell To India After 12 Years, Shares Valuable Lesson
Last Updated: Reid's LinkedIn post sparked a flood of reactions, with many praising its raw honesty, respect, and authenticity. After over a decade in India, British entrepreneur Jasper Reid shared an emotional LinkedIn post as he prepared to relocate to England with his family. In the viral post, Reid, Founder and CEO of International Market Management (IMM), bid farewell to his 12-year Indian chapter, reflecting on the lessons he learned and the legacy he hopes to leave behind. 'More than the three years we planned and just about enough to know how India works," he said as he summed up his experience in a single line. Initially planning a temporary stay, Reid and his family ended up spending over a decade in India. During this time, they successfully launched PizzaExpress in the Indian market and expanded Wendy's and Jamie's restaurants to 15 cities across 75 locations, creating thousands of jobs and significantly contributing to the country's food and hospitality industry. 'What did we learn? Above all, we learnt patience, resilience, hard work, and hospitality. These values have declined in many countries, but are alive and well in India. What else? That India dances to its own tune," he said. 'For outsiders, the tune can sound familiar but may be misleading; a siren call. Our privilege was to learn the market ground up, brick by brick, and over a long time. There is no substitute if you aim to succeed here. But it wasn't just about business," he added. Reid mentioned how his team stepped in during the COVID-19 lockdown to assist those in need. 'We fed and helped a million people and bused thousands of migrant workers home," he shared in the post. 'At any time, India is rich in humanity, excitement, and challenge, but also intensely demanding, hard, and wearing. There's no country like it, and if GDP were measured in souls, India wins. We love India truly, madly and deeply," Reid added. Leaving a message for Indian business owners, Reid said, 'Set your people free. It's the best thing you will ever do." According to him, trusting and empowering teams had been a game-changer during his time in India. The Reid family's ties to India run deep, with a legacy spanning generations. His grandfather contributed to the construction of Kolkata's Dum Dum Airport, his father worked with HelpAge India, and his wife's uncle founded a school in Sikkim. Now, his daughters, representing the fourth generation, have completed their schooling in Delhi and are set to pursue higher education in the UK. Despite the move, Reid wrote that India would always be home. 'Now we have two parental homes and are not really leaving India but moving to the other side of a great, glorious, magic circle." Reid's LinkedIn post sparked a flood of reactions, with many praising its raw honesty, respect, and authenticity. Some users admired his willingness to acknowledge India's challenges, while others resonated deeply with his words, seeing reflections of their own experiences living and working in the country. First Published: June 02, 2025, 08:19 IST
