HYDERABAD: With unscheduled power cuts being the order of the day, the Central Power Distribution Company of Andhra Pradesh Ltd (APCPDCL) is being flooded with complaints from citizens across the city. These days, on an average, the company is receiving over 2,000 complaints a day.“We receive 2,000-2,200 complaints everyday and all the complaints are attended to the same day itself except in exceptional cases,” AG Satish Kumar, chief general manager, metro zone, APCPDCL, told City Express. The minor inconvenience, as the officials like to put it, and the claim of immediate redressal of complaints, however, hasn’t cut much ice with the people.“Whenever I dial 155333, the call never gets connected and even if it does, it’s of no use as the person at the other end gives misleading information. There have been times when I was told that power would be back in half-an-hour but we had to wait for over three hours,” said Sekhar Reddy, a resident of Padmaraonagar. Similarly, Syed Shafi, a resident of Malakpet claimed, “the person at the other end was as clueless as I was about the power cuts. At most information is just partially correct.”When asked about this, the APCPDCL officials explained, “the system often gets hanged as it has a capacity to handle only 10 complaints at a time. The APCPDCL is also contemplating installation of a better helpline call system that may be an advanced version of the existing.”However, not all are complaining about the system in place right now. Suresh Rao, a resident of Dilsukhnagar, said, “Power had gone off at only our home. I just had to call up the helpline. There is one mobile gang allotted for every locality it seems. The power was restored in less than an hour. They sent a message to my mobile number too once the problem was successfully attended.”Addressing citizens’ complaints about non-operation of staffers and the inefficiency of the helpline, the APCPDCL has come up with “Electricity Fuse off Call (FOC) numbers” for the benefit of consumers. The list provides office and mobile numbers of the officers directly related to any electrical emergency in the respective localities under each division and the FOC centre’s numbers too in Hyderabad and RR zones.
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