Maybe sometime in the future, we will look back and think of 2020 as the worst year of our life, when nothing went right for us. The residents of Siliguri and its rural fringes may also look back and remember 2020 to be a year of horrifying electricity bills that put a dent in their wallets.

People across the town and its outskirts, especially many in the Matigara block, are getting astronomical electricity bills-some even double their usual monthly bill amounts.

Most of the residents of the block also alleged that complaints about their inflated bills have fallen on deaf ears. “I got a bill as high as Rs 11,000 in June-more than twice what I am used to paying. It has been over a month since I lodged an online complaint in the website of the electricity department about my abnormally high bill. Almost immediately I received a mail acknowledging the receipt of my complaint. But till date neither have I received any communication from the department nor have my grievances been redressed.

“In these Covid times, the lives of many people in our area as in the rest of the country have become miserable as they have lost their jobs. These exorbitant bills have aggravated their miseries, but the electricity department seems to be reluctant to pay heed to their sufferings,” said a senior resident of Salbari under the Matigara block.

Another victim of the skyrocketing electricity bills in the same block said that soon after she had lodged a complaint at the electricity office in Matigara about the exorbitant bills she had received in June, she got a phone call from the office asking her to go there and talk to the concerned department for the redressal of her grievances. “My husband works outside Siliguri and I stay at Shivmandir area with my son. It is not possible for me to go all the way to the electricity office in Matigara during this current pandemic situation to get my grievances redressed. It is a pity that even in this age of online services, the electricity department harasses its consumers by calling them to their offices for a simple problem,” she lamented.

Though the Matigara block has become a hotspot for the corona virus and these dizzying bills, those living in various parts of Siliguri also complained about excessively high bills. “Many residents in our locality are getting higher electricity bills, with some consumers complaining about an increase of anywhere between two to five times the usual levels. I got a hefty bill in June and complained about it to the electricity department. They refused to listen to any of my arguments and finally I had to pay the bill,” said Kajal Dey, a senior resident of Subhashpally.

Ajoy Sarkar, divisional manager, Siliguri division, who admitted the anomalies in the bills of June, said that it had happened because they have been trying to clear the backlog from the previous months. “Due to the Covid-19 lockdowns, meter reading activities were temporarily suspended for safety reasons and bills for January, February and March were generated based on average daily consumption during the same months last year. The bills were low then because it was cooler in those months. So, for January to March, customers were under-billed when the actual consumption was actually pretty high in many cases. As a result, the bills soared in June, as we also had to take the residual electricity amount into account,” he explained.

The divisional manager claimed that they had solved the billing problems of many consumers during the past one month as the head office had strictly instructed them to ensure that all complaints regarding high bills get redressed. “On an average, we are solving the problems of 20 to 25 consumers every day. If the problems of any consumer have not been redressed till date, he or she may come to the office and meet me or call me directly,” he said.