Chandigarh: Residents across several sectors of Chandigarh have raised concerns about persistent problems in the power supply and billing system, citing issues such as overcharging, unexplained arrears, issuance of double bills in a month, and frequent power disruptions. Many residents said lack of clarity in billing cycles and delays in rectifying errors have added to their grievances.Sunita Sharma, a resident of Sector 47D, said there was confusion over the billing cycle, with households receiving two electricity bills in a single month. “Imposition of arrears despite timely payments has become a major source of harassment. Take a case of bills for public toilets. Association has to submit paid electricity bill receipts to the MC for recovering the costs. But still arrears are being imposed in the bills, which is also the case with domestic bills. We have to run around for getting the arrears corrected.”Col Gursewak Singh (retd), president of the RWA at Manimajra Housing Complex, Sector 13, expressed concern over the sharp rise in bill amounts. “The bill amount people are getting for one month — Jan 2026, for instance — is either similar to or more than the amount for two months in bills received in Jan 2025. At least, there has to be clarity over the charges being imposed; this is particularly the case when usage remains similar,” he said.J J Singh, president of the Sector 48 RWA, said residents were confused about the billing structure itself. “There is total confusion over the billing cycle. Also, if the bill is to come every month, and not once in two months, then fixed charges should also be rationalised on these lines. But here also there is confusion when one reads the bills being sent,” he said. He claimed that there was lack of clarity from the company regarding billing and most users were worried that they are being taken for a ride.“Apart from billing issues, frequent power cuts and tripping have added to residents’ grievances. Avinash Dhawan of the Sector 45C RWA said the situation has worsened over the past year. “Power disruptions have increased in the last one year. We don’t understand why disruptions are taking place when there are no storms and major maintenance works. There is also an issue with tripping,” he said.Kuljinder Singh Sra of the Sector 33B RWA said disruptions often occur when supply is restored after an outage. “Whenever power supply is restored after cuts, there is a problem of frequent tripping. Power disruptions have also increased. We are worried what will happen during the peak summer, when power demand rises. We are paying for power but services have not improved,” he said.Sra also raised concerns about meter-checking staff. “The bills are coming twice a month. There is also an issue with the staff coming in for checking the meters. They come in the afternoon, without any name tag or credentials from the company. This is particularly disturbing for senior citizens,” he said.Responding to complaints, a CPDL spokesperson said the company had shifted from bi-monthly to monthly billing in line with regulatory directions. “In accordance with the directions of the Joint Electricity Regulatory Commission (JERC), CPDL transitioned from a bi-monthly to a monthly billing cycle with effect from Jan 19, 2026. Meter readings are now captured through photo-based reading and optical character recognition (OCR) software, eliminating the need for manual entry. Additionally, bills that were previously issued on a provisional or average basis are now generated based on actual meter readings,” the spokesperson said.He added that pre-billing and post-billing audits have been introduced to reduce discrepancies. “A prompt bill correction mechanism has been implemented. Migration to monthly billing is supported by an improved SAP-enabled system, allowing real-time bill corrections, unlike the earlier process, which could take up to two months. Newly inducted meter readers have been adequately trained and are well-versed with the updated system. Overall, the transition is stabilising, with a significant reduction in complaints observed in March,” CPDL said.On arrears, CPDL clarified: “Arrear in bill may appear as last bill unpaid or paid after issuance of bill. Last payment is printed on the bill. CPDL and eSampark are making further efforts for real time update of bill and payment. There is no overlapping in bills and they were for two separate consumption periods — Jan and Feb. One billed in Feb and other in March with one payable by March 8 and the other by March 30.”Regarding supply disruptions, the spokesperson said, “Only scheduled outages are being carried out as part of pre-summer maintenance to ensure seamless and uninterrupted power supply to consumers. Comprehensive maintenance and critical infrastructure upgrades have been initiated, along with preventive maintenance of transformers and distribution lines, to prevent outages.” Residents’ complaintsResidents reported double electricity bills within a single month, creating confusion over the billing cycle Several RWAs flagged unexplained arrears being added despite bills being paid on time Consumers complained of sharp increase in bill amounts, with one-month bills in Jan 2026 matching or exceeding two-month bills of Jan 2025 despite similar usage RWAs said there was lack of clarity on fixed charges after shift to monthly billing Residents flagged frequent power cuts and tripping, even in the absence of storms or major repair work Meter-checking staff reported to be visiting homes without proper identification, causing concernCPDL’s standCPDL said it shifted from bi-monthly to monthly billing from January 19, 2026, as per JERC directions The utility said billing is now based on photo-based meter readings using OCR software, eliminating manual entry and provisional billing CPDL stated that pre-billing and post-billing audits and a prompt correction mechanism have been introduced to reduce discrepancies It clarified that arrears may appear if the previous bill was unpaid or paid after issuance of the new bill, with last payment details printed on bills CPDL said there is no overlap in bills, which were issued for separate consumption periods of Jan and Feb with different due dates On power disruptions, CPDL maintained that only scheduled outages for pre-summer maintenance are being carried out, along with infrastructure upgrades to ensure uninterrupted supplyMSID:: 130021154 413 |
