From lakhs to hundreds: Rs 69 lakh electricity bill sends elderly MP man's BP soaring; later revised to Rs 635 after panic
The bill was later corrected to Rs 635, but not before it triggered panic and outrage across the city.
Murarilal Tiwari, a resident of Home Guard Road, lives with his wife and uses minimal electricity. Despite a smart meter reading of just 219 units, he received a huge bill on 30 May.. He had submitted a written complaint, but no action was initially taken — and a penalty of Rs 1 lakh was added to his latest bill.
'My heart almost stopped beating when I got an SMS about the bill on May 30. My blood pressure shot up, and I was shivering,' Tiwari told TOI.
'We barely use a fan, and I couldn't understand how the bill could be so high.'
Tiwari said electricity department officials visited him on Tuesday and informed him that the bill had been corrected. 'I thanked them. Now I'm at ease. My son is in the Army, and my wife and I are dependent on him,' he added.
His case is not isolated. Tiwari's neighbour, Mahendra Singh Raghuvanshi, received a bill of Rs 68 lakh. In AgyaRam Colony, a slum area, several labourer families — whose usual bills range between Rs 100 and Rs 200 — were also issued electricity bills running into lakhs.
by Taboola
by Taboola
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Residents claim that smart meters were installed without prior notice or consent and that their complaints were ignored until the issue drew media attention.
Electricity department officials attributed the inflated bills to a software error during the transition to smart meters.
'Due to incorrect entry of the Final Reading (FR) from meters removed during smart meter installation, inflated bills were generated for 106 consumers,' district collector Anshul Gupta told TOI.
'All the bills were reviewed and corrected. Consumers were individually informed, and a special camp was held at the zone office to resolve complaints,' he added.
The smart meters were installed under a central government scheme aimed at improving billing accuracy and transparency.
Kshitij Singhal, Managing Director of Madhya Pradesh Madhya Kshetra Vidyut Vitaran Company Ltd, said all incorrect bills were being corrected.
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