BESCOM consumers need not worry about wrong billing anymore. BESCOM has noticed that customers sometimes receive electricity bills that show more units they have actually consumed. They have attritudes error or negligence in meter reading, to be the main reasons for wrong billing. Now BESCOM is taking a step to put an end to such human errors, through a technology called Photo Billing.
A BESCOM employee checks the meter reading.
In Photo Billing, the meter reader will take photographs of the reading of units consumed, with a special inbuilt 3MP Camera that is given to him. The captured images, will get updated immediately in the database installed and monitored in Sub division level, through GPS. This will confirm that the meter reader has personally visited the spot and carefully gathered the data. Later, while generating the electricity bill, the data gathered and the photo captured will be compared to ensure that the bill amount is proper.
Photo Billing will not only help consumers to get a proper electricity bill, but in the case of conflicts, it will also help sub-division staff verify the bill, by comparing it with the photo that is stored in database. Consumers’ billing details available in NSoft server can later be viewed by any BESCOM officer using a web application.
The pilot project of Photo Billing has been successfully implemented in Bangarpeth sub-division, Kolar District. From January 2014, this system will go live in Bangarpet sub-division along with the Spot Billing Machine. BESCOM is planning to implement this consumer friendly technology in many other sub-divisions as well, in the times to come.
Source: BESCOM Press Release dated February 4, 2014.
The biggest problem with BESCOM is disconnection of the supply without any notice. I always pay the bills the very next day of receiving the bill. The problem comes if there is a defect in BESCOM Servers and the accounts are not updated . If you had gone out of station, the havoc due to disconnection is unimaginable. This problem is there even if you had opted for ECS payment and your payment is not updated by BESCOM.
I request the authorities to look into this matter and give time to show proof of payment before disconnection. They should not disconnect after every month because it is their duty to set their home correct first. The process of disconnection should be only after 3 non payments and that too after confirming that it is not due to Server problems and update failures within BESCOM. I have another suggestion as they do in Banks. The moment the bills are paid, BESCOM should send SMS to the consumer confirming the receipt.
This way, the office goers and Senior citizens will get a great relief.
Could have given image courtesy to the Hindu: http://www.thehindu.com/multimedia/dynamic/01745/05bg_bgkcd_phot_06_1745619e.jpg