A glaring example of staff shortage in PSEB was seen when more than 15,000 consumers did not receive the electricity bills in Model Town extension and Aggar Nagar division because of shortage of bill distributors. The divisions had appointed staff on contract basis but due to court orders, they could not renew their contract and hence faced shortage of staff to distribute the bills. The last date to deposit the electricity bills through cheques was today while through cash it is tomorrow.

The executive engineers (XEN) of both divisions had deputed their technical staff as well to distribute the bills, but despite that thousands did not receive the bills till today. In Model Town extension division office, bills were lying in one corner and the consumers were told to find out their bills themselves from the heap.

A few consumers deposited the bills somehow today, but still a number of others could not deposit and face a possible penalty charges for no fault of their’s.

Information revealed that nearly 15 bill distributors had been contracted in Model Town extension and around five in Aggar Nagar division. In Model Town extension division, problem of bill distribution surfaced mainly in Shaheed Bhagat Singh Nagar, Karnail Singh Nagar and Punjab Mata Nagar. Executive engineer Jagtar Singh said, “As most of our bill distributors were hired on contract basis, we were severely hit. Still, we tried our best to distribute maximum number of bills. Most of the bills had been distributed by late evening.”

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