Kanjan Kanti Chakraborty:
Hundreds of customers have formed a human chain and protested against the officials and employees of the Rural Electricity Association in Rajapur, Jhalakathi, alleging various irregularities and corruption, including creating fake bills.
On Monday, the affected customers observed this hour-long human chain program on the Khulna-Barisal regional highway in the Naikathi area of the upazila.
The speakers in the human chain complained that the officials and employees of the Jhalakathi Rural Electricity Association have been harassing customers, creating fake bills and committing irregularities and corruption. The harassment of customers must stop and the fake bills must be remedied. The participants in the human chain complained that the Rural Electricity Office is illegally collecting extra money from customers by showing additional readings in the monthly meter unit. Customers complain that these additional bills are often not adjusted within 15-20 days, as a result, every 3-4 months they face bills that are double or more than the previous month.
Maulana Mostafizur Rahman, Babul Mir, Md. Zakir Hossain, Bashir Ahmed and Md. Delwar Hossain, among others, spoke at the protest meeting. They said that ordinary customers are constantly being harassed due to the corruption of the Rural Electricity Association. “A bill of 500 taka in one month becomes 1500 taka the next month, which is completely unreasonable. There is no explanation as to how such a bill is generated even after using the same amount of electricity.”
The speakers further said, “VAT, meter rent, demand charges are all collected from the customers. However, the service quality is not good, when customers go to the office with bill-related complaints, they are mistreated and instead of solving the problem, they are told, ‘Come next month, it will be fixed.’ Due to this, the common people have become helpless victims of corruption. The speakers raised the question, “Customers are paying VAT, meter rent, service charges—all of it. Why do they have to pay demand charges separately?” Many times, if an electricity pole or meter is damaged, why do they have to pay a bribe to replace it?
The speakers demanded that a proper investigation into this irregularity and corruption should be conducted immediately and action should be taken against those responsible. They warned, “If this problem is not solved quickly, then a bigger movement will be called in the future.”
Rajapur Zonal Office Deputy General Manager (A.D.) Prof. Md. Rabiul Hossain said, “Bills are prepared based on the meter reading. With the hot season approaching, many people use more electricity, which results in higher bills.”
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