DISCOMS to move to full paperless billing
Srinagar, Sep 19 (GNS): Digital transactions in J&K PDD recorded an increase of 278.77%in the first quarter of the present year over the corresponding period last year. A total of 3.08 lakh digital transactions were recorded in July 2021 alone and a sum of Rs. 35.04 crores was collected via digital mode by the DISCOMS from the consumers. This was revealed at a meeting chaired by the Principal Secretary, Power Development Department, Rohit Kansal, at Data Centre Bemina, Srinagar to review the progress of various IT projects being carried out for in the power sector and for strengthening IT and Communication Services in the Corporations.
The meeting discussed various aspects and issues related to implementation of Information Technology in JKPDD, status and progress achieved in various ongoing projects under RAPDRP, SCADA, RT-DAS, installation of smart metering, Feeder Metering, UID of Distribution Transformers, Billing & Collection, Customer Care, JKPDD e-support.
Addressing the meeting, Rohit Kansal called for adoption of e bills across all categories of customers. He directed the officers of PDD to encourage people to opt out of physical bills and move completely to e-bills. He said that this would not only ensure a faster billing process, but would also enable greater transparency and better complaint resolution. He directed the DISCOMS that to promote paperless bills and digital payments a special campaign should be launched across all websites and billing platforms to encourage and motivate consumers to adopt paperless bills. He also directed that to further ease the billing process, a single account needs to be created so that the customers who do not use digital means can pay their monthly bills at any branch of the bank over the counter.
Maintaining that customer satisfaction should be top priority of the department, he impressed upon the officers for integrating customer care numbers in a single call centre for better resolution of complaints through a unified software.
Principal Secretary also directed that grievance redressal mechanism should be made more prompt and all the grievances received through other means apart from social media platforms too must be integrated with the call centre. He also said that regular monitoring of progress of the call centre should be done regarding the complaints received and their disposal and MIS reports of complaints should be forwarded to his office on monthly basis and regular monitoring should be done at other levels.
He said that with unprecedented investment in infrastructure improvement in the past 2 years, PDD had made much progress in terms of power supply to the customers.
Emphasizing that the credibility and strength of the department lies in transparency, the Principal Secretary said that consumers should be actively involved and made part of the system and data regarding billing, curtailments, power consumption should be shared with them. He also added that repeatedly damaged transformers should be flagged and the public should be informed about the reasons for the damage. He also said that DISCOMS should migrate to e-support services for utilizing the tracking mechanism of transformers in order to have quick repairs and replacements.
Regarding the asset mapping, it was given out in the meeting that asset mapping of 647 feeders has been completed and marking of assets like poles and substations is complete. Each asset is coded to indicate inventory origin and destination of supply. Principal Secretary directed that asset mapping of feeders has to be updated and upgraded on a continuous basis.
Maintaining that all the websites of JKPDD have to be compliant and consistent with government standards he said that all the websites of PDD should be parented to the main website. He further added that consumer oriented services should be available across all the websites of PDD and all should be cross linked.
Regarding the completion of various projects like SCADA, he said that it is a prestigious project and has to be completed within the stipulated time frame.
He directed the officers to work out a perspective plan for upgradation of IT systems and phase it out based on the need and vulnerability of existing systems and processes. He also directed them to make solid use of e-support as it is a one stop shop for all DISCOMs related activities.
Principal Secretary was informed that several measures have been taken up to improve the power supply besides timely generation and delivery of power bills and it was assured that the same will be further improved. The meeting also informed that the works taken up under various projects and schemes are at different stages of completion and are being regularly monitored to complete them within the stipulated time frame.
The meeting was attended by Chairman JPDCL, Jagmohan Sharma, MD KPDCL, Basharat Qayoom, Technical Secretary, Bashir Ahmad Dar, Chief Engineers of Kashmir Power Corporations Aijaz Dar, Yousuf Baba and senior officers of both Jammu and Kashmir divisions.(GNS)
