Legal notice to stop inflated electricity bills
The Consumer Association of Bangladesh (CAB) has sent a legal notice to the government to stop inflated electricity bills and take appropriate action against those involved in the matter.
Supreme Court lawyer Jyotirmoy Barua sent the notice on behalf of CAB on Sunday.
The notice was sent to the secretary of the Power Division, chairman of the Bangladesh Energy Regulatory Commission, chairman, Bangladesh Rural Electrification Board, managing director of Dhaka Power Distribution Company Ltd (DPDC), managing director of Dhaka Electric Supply Company Ltd (DESCO) and 8 others.
The lawyer would file a writ petition in the High Court if they do not take appropriate action within three days. The power division marked 290 people for the inflated electricity bills.
A task force formed by the Power Division also instructed the companies to form a committee to investigate the matter separately. But no one has been punished so far except some lower level officials of the companies.
Most of the overinflated bill allegations come against DPDC. Later, DPDC formed a committee headed by its director of ICT. On the recommendation of that committee, four people, including an executive engineer, were suspended.
Show cause notices were sent to 36 NOC Executive engineers.
The engineers protested and said in response that "the ICT executive director of the company himself sent instructions to make overinflated bills. The instructions stated how much extra should be added to the bills in some areas."
The DPDC then again formed a committee headed by Director (Finance) Golam Mostafa.