The SMS helpline — that was launched in January by the then chief minister Arvind Kejriwal to address complaints on loadshedding in Delhi — seems to be heading nowhere. The Delhi Electricity Regulatory Commission (DERC) has asked the Delhi government to change the present mechanism by which complaints on power cuts received through SMS are being sent to the power regulator.
The helpline registers complaints of unscheduled power cuts through SMS, which are directly forwarded to the DERC for action if there is fault on the part of discoms.
The Power department has received 1,406 complaints through this helpline and found 1,043 valid. There are 498 SMSes against BRPL, 367 against BYPL and 178 against TPDDL till April and all these have been forwarded to the DERC to decide whether these power cuts were because of maintenance of lines or some other local problem and, if not, whether these were unscheduled cuts.
with thanks : Indian Express : LINK : for detailed news.
