Reports of a major scam involving manual meter reading and billing by Powercom employees (meter readers) in various districts across Punjab have created a stir within the department. Given the seriousness of the matter, IT Cell officials at Powercom’s Patiala headquarters have issued orders to nearly all Chief Engineers and other senior officials across Punjab to thoroughly investigate the matter.
According to department sources, Powercom has launched a sophisticated campaign to ensure electricity metering is done using OCR scanning app technology to ensure that meter readers can avoid fraudulent meter billing by varying the unit count. However, in recent times, most meter readers have been generating consumer bills manually rather than using OCR technology.
Meter readers have argued that OCR is not a valid method. Due to technical fault in the device, the bills of the consumers have been prepared manually by them but in this matter the needle of suspicion is rapidly moving in the minds of the higher officials of the Powercom department because in most parts of Punjab the bills of the electricity consumers prepared by the meter readers have been prepared as zero and these figures are not acceptable to the officials. In response to a question, the official said that the possibility of many cases of corruption and bribery being exposed in the coming days cannot be ignored.
