Sopore residents outraged over inflated electricity bills

Baramulla, Feb 17: The residents of Krankshivan Colony of Sopore in north Kashmir’s Baramulla district, on Friday expressed outrage after receiving inflated electricity bills for the month of January.
The locals said that the bills, which range from Rupees 4000 to 5000, are significantly higher than the usual bill of Rupees 1000 to 2000 that residents pay during the winter period. “The bills do not accurately reflect our actual electricity usage.”
“This is for the first time that we received such exorbitant bills since the installation of the smart electricity meters,” the locals told Rising Kashmir.
The situation has caused significant distress for the affected consumers who are now urging higher authorities to intervene and provide some relief.
They argue that just because their locality is the highest producing revenue area, it doesn’t give officials the right to loot them on the pretext of inflated bills.
Talking to Rising Kashmir Executive Engineer PDD, Sopore Javeed Ahmed called the allegations baseless, claiming that the consumers are overusing electricity and making false claims about their bills.
“The system is heavily overloaded due to illegal load use, and metered consumers are resorting to hooking. It’s unfortunate that despite overuse of electricity, the consumers are alleging it to be inflated electricity bills,” he added.
He said that the affected residents should visit the sub-division officer during office hours to resolve the issue, if any.