Haryana: DHBVN prohibits builders & RWAs to alter power meters to charge other fees

GURUGRAM: The Dakshin Haryana Bijli Vitran Nigam (DHBVN) has passed an order prohibiting builders and RWAs to make any changes in electricity meters of individual consumers to account for any other charges other than power consumption.

Passing an order in response to a complaint filed by a flat owner of Uniworld Gardens-II alleging malpractice and tampering with the prepaid meters installed by the builder, the discom’s Forum for Redressal of Consumer Grievances stated that meters should only be charging the cost per unit of the power consumed by the owners. Charges and expenses other than electricity consumption should be kept separately.

“No one is authorised to make any changes in the individual energy meters put by the RWA to account for any charges other than electricity. It is mandatory for RWA/builder to keep the electricity business entirely separate from any other expenses, charges whatsoever to maintain complete transparency and to keep electricity related records available for its scrutiny by the licensee,” read the order.

The order further directed the Sohna sub-divisional officer to direct the builder to comply with the orders and send a status update report to the forum within 30 days.

The move comes after Naresh Jindal, a flat owner, approached the forum and alleged that the builder, Unitech Realty Pvt Ltd, was deducting additional amounts from his pre-paid meter after tampering with it.

“The prepaid meters were charging us more than the power we were consuming. We found out that the meters were tampered with in a way that they were recording even the power consumption of common areas and other maintenance charges. When I didn’t get a satisfactory response from DHBVN officials, I filed a complaint with the forum and finally they issued an order in our favour,” Jindal said.

Unitech couldn’t be reached for comments despite several attempts by TOI.

Residents of the society said the builder had sent out a notice to all the homeowners in May stating that a new ‘automatic deduction from energy meter’ was being introduced, under which maintenance charges would be deducted daily from the balance amount in the prepaid meter.