Meter reading frauds will not be tolerated, FIR being lodged: Bhardwaj
The Delhi Jal Board is taking a tough stand against the issue of frauds in meter readings. An FIR has been registered against a meter reader of a private agency that had been appointed for billing on behalf of Delhi Jal Board. Several complaints were received from customers against meter readers regarding frauds and irregularities in billing.
Saurabh Bhardwaj, Vice-Chairman, Delhi Jal Board, had directed the senior officials of DJB last week to register FIRs against the erring meter readers and their respective agencies. Shri Saurabh Bhardwaj also asked Delhi Jal Board officials to issue show cause notices to the agencies paying less than minimum wages and to write to the Labour Department requesting them to take strict action against these agencies.
Delhi Jal Board has a total of 41 Zones in Delhi and private agencies have been appointed in 21 Zones for the billing purposes. For quite some time, many DJB customers have been complaining against such meter readers of these private agencies stating that they have been tempting the customers to get their water bills reduced in lieu of some money.
The DJB Vice Chairman said: “We must take strict action against these corrupt meter readers as well as inform the customers that there is no such technique to reduce the water meter reading. Meter readers can reduce your bill for once by noting less reading, but ultimately you will have to bear greater loss because you will have to pay this bill one day or the other and by then this bill would become too much cumulatively.”
Bhardwaj further added: “Under the leadership of Chief Minister Shri Arvind Kejriwal, we must ensure that the people of Delhi do not have to face corruption in any form. We have a zero tolerance policy against any kind of corruption. Henceforth, we will continue to take similar strict actions against erring meter readers.”
