CHENNAI: The Tamil Nadu Power Distribution Corporation (TNPDCL) will engage manpower of a third party through contracts to read meters and overcome the erratic assessment of power consumption — which leads to wrong and inflated power bills — and to address the shortage of assessors. Outsourcing of the task will come into effect in October.
The contract meter readers shall ensure that the actual meter reading is recorded on the consumer premises, correct service connection is selected in the application and assessment is completed within the prescribed billing cycle,” said a circular issued to all field engineers from TNPDCL headquarters. Consumer activist T Sadagopan has welcomed the move and said it will curtail the practice of table reading. The contract workers should be duly monitored by TNPDCL,” he said. Meanwhile, TNPDCL assessors’ association president Kannan said the decision to outsource meter reading would do more harm than good. We oppose this privatisation move,” he said.
“The meter reading shall be carried out by the contractor through the mobile application using an optical probe or a Bluetooth transmitter. “If the contract workers assess meters without delay, consumption will not jump to high slabs and prevent inflated bills. “The contract workers will not have any responsibility and may indulge in table reading without visiting the consumer premises or under-assess consumption to favour some consumers. The officials have not even consulted the unions by issuing notice as per procedure and issued circular to all field officers.