Govt dismisses rumours on multiple connections in one name being merged

CHENNAI: Electricity Minister V Senthilbalaji on Tuesday dismissed the rumours on social media that the Aadhaar number is obtained only for merging more than one domestic electricity connection in the same house, in the name of the same person.

In a tweet, he said that no such order in this regard has been issued to any section office.

Minister's tweet came hours after CPM announced a state-wide protest in front of the Tangedco offices against reports of its move to merge more than one service connection in an individual house and introduction of the domestic common service tariff which charges Rs 8 per unit.

A notice issued by Tangedco's Thiruverumbur Operation and Maintenance office to the consumers to merge more than one service connection has been doing rounds on social media.

Tangedco, in a statement, said that the concerned official has been suspended for the way the notice was drafted by the section officer.

It said that the Tamil Nadu Electricity Regulatory Commission in the tariff order dated September 9 last year directed the utility to inspect individual houses to identify multiple connections used by one family and merge them.

"Due to administrative reasons, we have sought additional time for such tariff conversion works," it said, adding that no such orders were issued from the distribution circles to the section offices to merge the multiple domestic connections.

Earlier, CPM state secretary K Balakrishnan demanded that Tangedco should stop merging the multiple domestic connections to deny free 100 units to consumers. He said that people living in the apartments are burdened with the introduction of the common service tariff which charges Rs 8 per unit and Rs 100 per kilowatt per month as fixed charges.

"The common service tariff should be done away with," he demanded.