Sapphire protest over 'rigged' meters

Noida: More than 150 residents of Amrapali Sapphire (Phase 1) in Sector 45 on Tuesday took out a candlelight march outside the office of SP (city) Dinesh Yadav and ASP Gaurav Grover in Sector 6 to protest against the alleged tampering of electric meters by the builder and police inaction on the issue.
Sapphire was recently in the news after its residents tagged India cricket captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni in a Twitter campaign to voice their anguish at being handed over unfinished homes.Dhoni subsequently stepped down as Amrapali brand ambassador.
Tuesday's march began at 7.30pm, when residents assembled at the Authority office in Sector 6 and proceeded to the ASP's office. "For the over 1,000 residents living in the society, there's an acute problem of tampered meters that are generating overcharged readings. These meters not only give inflated readings, but also trip all the time. When we complained to the local SHO, Zaheer Khan, there was no redress as the representative of the builder was not present. So we met ASP Grover," said S K Srivastava, resident of Sapphire.
According to Srivastava, the residents had met SSP Dharmendra Singh on Monday who in turn directed SP Yadav to hear out the affected parties. Since Yadav was busy with another case, ASP Grover met the residents.
Grover has ordered a preliminary inquiry into and sought feedback from the power department on the alleged charges of tampered meters. "He assured us action would be taken based on the inquiry and after hearing the builder's version," Srivastava said. Residents said many of them woke up on June 3 to see their digital electrical meters deducting money at will. "In less than an hour Rs 1,000 was deducted," a resident said. When residents approached the maintenance department of the society they were informed that they had some 'instructions' from the top management to deduct maintenance along with the electricity bill.
"This is illegal and a violation of rules framed by Uttar Pradesh State Electricity Regulatory Commission (UPERC), which states electricity chargers cannot be clubbed with any other charges," said Avdesh Kumar Verma, president, Electricity Consumer Forum.
Sanjay Srivastava, secretary of UPERC, has directed discom PVVNL to look into the issue and take action against alleged tampering of meters and submit a report within a week. TOI has a copy of that letter.
The builder could not be contacted despite repeated attempts.