Mangaluru (Karnataka) : The Congress came to power in Karnataka by announcing the 'Gruha Jyoti' free electricity scheme among other promises. But even before this promise is implemented in letter and spirit, a family was shocked after receiving an electricity bill of Rs. 7 lakh. This triggered a huge debate among the public even as the Siddaramaiah-led Congress government is all set to implement the free current scheme from July.
As per sources, a family in Ullal received an electricity bill of Rs 7 lakh for this month. The house owners were shocked when they saw the exorbitant bill. Sadashiva Acharya, a resident of Ullalabail, could not believe his eyes when the bill was delivered to him. He heaved a sigh of relief only after the officials rectified the error and delivered a revised bill.
"In the electricity bill, 99,338 units of electricity have been shown as consumed and the bill has been entered for Rs 7,71,072. Earlier, they used to get a monthly electricity bill of around only Rs 3,000. We pay the bill every month. We were all shocked to see the bill that came this month," said Sadashiva Acharya, the owner of the house.
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"Bill collection is done through agencies. The electricity bill is wrongly printed due to the mistake of the bill reader. If there is an error in the electricity bill, it cannot be given to the customer. A revised bill will be delivered to Sadashiva Acharya's house immediately," said Abhiantara Dayananda, Executive Engineer of Ullala Mescom sub-division. Later, a revised electricity bill of Rs 2,833 was delivered to Sadashiva Acharya's home.