The Observer An IIJNM publication
Ward committee meeting minutes not published on BBMP website | P 2
Vol 19, Issue 6
Thursday, September 26, 2019
Major complaints l Frequent power outages l Delays in updating payment status l Termination of connection despite paying the bill l Inability to pay bills due to a Bescom server error
Tamanna Yasmin
B
escom consumers have numerous grievances against the company. Primary among them are frequent power outages, delays in updating payment status, termination of connection despite paying the bill, and inability to pay bills due to a Bescom server error. Some of them take to Twitter to make their grievances known. They claim Bescom is slow in resolving complaints. Most of the time, the helpline number 1912 is unreachable. Rafiki, an aggrieved consumer, informed The Observer: “Bills paid through the KarnatakaOne mobile app takes 5 to 10 working days to reflect in the Bescom system. So they come and remove the fuse without verifying if the bill has been paid.” Consumers Mohd Ismail and Harish Reddy tweeted they are unable to pay their Bescom bills online through e-wallets like Paytm, Google Pay and PhonePe. K. Balamurugan faced a similar problem on the Bescom website: “I don’t know what happened to
Avishek’s unexpected bill for Septemberas shown on Google Pay | Courtesy: Avishek Biswas Bescom’s online payment. Nowadays, the webpage hardly opens.” Hariharan B. tweeted that although he has a hard copy of the bill, he is unable to pay online as the amount is not showing up on the Bescom website. For a few, Bescom has rude surprises. Avishek Biswas informed The Observer: “My bill usually comes around Rs 500. But this time it is 64 times more. I have not got the paper receipt as well. I have checked the bill on Google Pay, it is Rs 32,074.”
@theweeklyobserver Epaper:https://issuu.com/ theweeklyobserver/docs Website: http://www. theweeklyobserver.in
Nirbhaya fund is strangled due to negligence of the bureaucracy | P 3
Consumers sore with Bescom, many tweet their grievances Complain bills are inflated, helpline is not of much use
facebook.com/ twoiijnm/
Krishna Teja, a resident of Kadugodi, said: “Bescom refused to restore power without a visit by me to their office. A Kadugodi Bescom officer told me over phone that I needed to visit the office with my bill. It took six tweets, five calls to field officers, four calls to 1912, two days of blackout, and a lot of patience, to resolve the issue.” Ravindra Gowda tweeted: “There are power cuts as frequent as 15 times a day in CKB Layout, Munnekolala and Marathahalli. I don’t understand
the reason behind this.” On September 18, Sameer Joshi, a resident of Rajajinagar, tweeted: “No power in half of Rajajinagar for more than 9 hours! Very improper planning by Bescom, all residents are suffering without any power….” In a bizarre case, foreigner James Rinard who doesn’t live in India, tweeted: “For over a year I’ve been getting emails every month telling me I’ve successfully paid my @NammaBESCOM bill. Bescom is an electric company in India. Even after contacting them, this continues.” He had also attached screenshots of mails received by him. B.N. Nagarajaiah, general manager-in-charge of Bescom customer relations, said: “Regarding online payment, it is real time, it will get updated immediately. There is no delay. Probably it happens due to their network issues. Even the website error they are claiming to face might be because of the same.” Asked about frequent power outages, he said: “We will check that with our people.” Pointing to the specific cases of Ravindra Gowda and Sameer Joshi, he added: “Maybe it is their internal fault. Fifteen times a day is not possible. Nine hours of power cut also sounds very strange. Anyway, we will look into it.” Continued on page 2
News briefs Population register The National Population Register updation exercise, to be undertaken alongside Census 2021, will collect several particulars such as Aadhaar, mobile number, PAN, driving licence and voter ID details and passport numbers from all residents of India. Trump impeachment Democrat-controlled US House of Representatives has initiated impeachment proceedings against President Donald Trump even as transcripts of his phone calls with Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky showed he sought to persuade the foreign leader to investigate his putative 2020 presidential election rival Joe Biden. Bansal invests in micro-fin co Sachin Bansal, who co-founded Flipkart in 2007, is back to running a business by acquiring majority control in non-banking financial company Chaitanya Rural Intermediation Development Services. Rape accuser arrested The law student who had accused former Union minister Chinmayanand of rape was arrested by the SIT on Wednesday. A court later rejected her bail application and remanded her in 14 days’ judicial custody. Contempt action Karnataka High Court on Wednesday directed BBMP commissioner B.H. Anil Kumar to show cause why action should not be initiated against him for contempt of court for disobeying the court’s direction to provide the government with a Kannada version of Outdoor Signage and Public Messaging Bylaws, 2018.
Autorickshaws with 2-stroke engines still run in Bengaluru
Are expected to be completely phased out by 2020 Meghna Das Chowdhury
T
hough the Karnataka government proposes to ban two-stroke engines, autorickshaws and motorcycles fitted with these engines continue to ply in Bengaluru. Autorickshaw drivers say they are unaware of the proposed ban and the pollution cause by twostroke engines. Nagaraj Kumar, the driver of
Two-stroke engines cause air pollution | Credit: Meghna Das Chowdhury
an autorickshaw with a twostroke engine, informed The Observer: “I am not aware whether it is banned or not. I use it as it is in a good condition.” But he added, “I often have to go a garage and find it difficult to get parts for the two-stroke engine. They are not available at a lot of places.” “After this engine gives up, I have to buy a four-stroke autorickshaw,” driver Kiran from Kumbalgodu, said. Two-stroke engines require only two piston movements in order to generate power. Studies have found out that two-stroke engines generate a lot of smoke and increase air pollution. The
smoke they emit is four times more hazardous than that generated by four-stroke engines. Autorickshaws with two-stroke engines emit a lot of smoke that is black in colour and smell of burning fuel. Balaji R, who runs an autorickshaw with a two-stroke engine, said it emits a pungent smell and smoke, and he has to take the vehicle to a garage to have its engine cleaned. M.S. Prakash, an assistant subinspector at the Karnataka traffic police headquarters, said: “In new autorickshaws that are being manufactured, no two-stroke engines are being used. The vehicles with two-stroke engines out there
are the last ones remaining. The new autorickshaws have fourstroke engines. It is the same case with bikes and cars.” According to an article that appeared in The Hindu: “As the pollution levels are increasing, the Transport Department has decided to ban two-stroke autorickshaws in the city from April 1, 2018.” But the government extended the deadline to 2020 on realizing that more than 30,000 autorickshaws would be affected by the proposed ban. Hardly any two-stroke engines are available in the automobile market in Bengaluru. Continued on page 2