Only 45k consumers get msg on power cuts

MEERUT: The scheme of sending text messages to inform city residents about power cuts before they are made is yet to take off. Most of the city residents still have to be registered with the software of electricity department but even out of the one lakh people who are already registered, only 45,000 are getting the message due to a technical glitch, admit authorities.The scheme was started over a month ago on May 1.
“Whenever a power cut is scheduled in a specific area, joint engineers send a message about the power cut duration to the group created on instant messaging app Hike. The customer care official, who is also added in the group, then sends a text message to the people in the affected area, making them aware about the power cut. Though we have nearly one lakh phone numbers in our records, currently we are able to provide the facility only to 45,000 people,” said RK Rana, superintendent engineer, Paschimanchal Vidyut Vitaran Nigam Limited (PVVNL).
The PVVNL authorities had come up with a novel way to ensure that the city residents get a text message about the duration of power cut in their areas – which was implemented from May 1.
Asked as to why less than 50% of the people on record were being served with this facility, Rana, said, “There are some technical glitches with the software, which we are trying to mend and once we are done with it, all the remaining customers’ numbers will get text messages too. Also, people will have to come forward to register their numbers in our database to ensure that we have the numbers of all the city residents. As of now, we only have 70% of the total number.”
The customer care person, who is on duty 24x7, ensures that these messages are fed into the computer system and the people in the area concerned get the information of the power cut duration.