Pic for representational purpose
Pune: The Consumer Grievance Redressal Forum (CGRF) has scheduled a hearing on Nov 17 on complaints filed by 12 Baner residents over power outages between March and June this year. On May 17, residents of several housing societies in the Baner, Balewadi and Pashan areas staged a protest against frequent and prolonged power cuts during the summer months.
At the time, some of the protesting consumers had said they planned to approach CGRF over the issue. The residents have sought various records from the Maharashtra State Electricity Distribution Company Ltd (MSEDCL) to establish the reasons for the outages, examine preventive measures to avoid recurring power cuts and seek compensation. CGRF is a quasi-judicial body that hears consumer complaints related to electricity supply. In their complaints, the residents have sought details of the electricity infrastructure, including the distribution transformers, the total number of consumers and their sanctioned load on each substation feeder. The residents have listed several instances of power supply disruptions during the period and the explanations provided by MSEDCL for each outage. In one instance, the power utility attributed the interruptions to increased electricity consumption during the summer months. However, the complainants argued in their statement that a rise in consumption does not, by itself, establish that the repeated interruptions were unavoidable.