Two such incidents happened at Uran and New Panvel where MSEDCL’s recovery officials were beaten up by residents
MSEDCL officials have been tasked with recovering pending bills or disconnecting power lines. Representation pic
Employees of the Maharashtra State Electricity Distribution Company (MSEDCL), tasked with recovering pending bills and disconnecting power supply of those who refuse to pay, are facing residents’ anger in the form abuse. Two such incidents happened at Uran and New Panvel over the past couple of days where workers of the company were beaten up by residents. Police cases have been registered against two people in connection with the incidents.
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In the first incident that happened on March 15 around 3.30 pm, a junior technician along with two others had gone to a consumer’s house in Chirner. “When we went to consumer Nakul Patil’s house we found that he had passed away, but his son Tushar was there. We asked him to pay the pending bill amount of R5,740, to which Tushar said that we could disconnect the power if we wished to, but he would not pay the bill,” said technician Balasaheb Kamthe.
“When I was about to disconnect the line, Tushar rushed towards me and hit me on my hands. Two of my colleagues, Mahendra Patil and Raju Walkonde, tried to save me, but he again physically abused me. We ran from the spot and filed a police complaint,” added Kamthe.
An FIR has been registered at Uran police station under IPC sections 332 (voluntarily causing hurt to deter public servant from his duty), 353 (assault or criminal force to deter public servant from discharge of his duty), 504 (intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of the peace) and 506 (criminal intimidation). The cops have arrested 32-year-old Tushar Patil, who is currently in police custody.
Second incident
In another incident, an assistant engineer and two other officials who had gone to disconnect the power supply at a consumer’s house in Nere, were assaulted.
“We had gone to Dattatray Gavate’s residence, who had not paid a total bill of R11,112. We had sent him a notice and given him enough time to pay the bill,” said Dada Yamgar, assistant engineer and in charge of Nere Branch. This incident happened on March 17.
When Yamgar and his associates Chandrashekhar Rangari and Vaibhav Sakhre asked Gavte to pay the bill or else they would remove the meter, the latter said that he would pay at his own convenience.
When the team was about to remove the meter, Gavte rushed towards them and started hitting Sakhre. “He abused all three of us and when I tried to record the incident, he snatched my mobile phone and threatened to beat us up. We filed a complaint at the New Panvel police station. An FIR has been registered against him,” said Yamgar.
Mamta Pandey, PRO of MSEDCL (Bhandup Urban Zone) said, “We have repeatedly requested these consumers to pay their bills. We appeal to consumers to pay their bills on time to avoid any inconvenience. Non-payment or any objectionable behaviour will be dealt with strictly.”
March 15
Date of first attack against MSEDCL officials
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