/24-7PressRelease.com/ - New Delhi, India - May 14, 2005 - In power starved Delhi, the citizens seem to be resigned to corrupt and inefficient utilities officials and equipment. The Anil Ambani-controlled Reliance Energy Ltd (REL), which took over power supply in major parts of the national Capital a few years ago, has been in the dock for installing "fast-running" digital meters in order to slap inflated bills on the consumers.
The man behind these meters is Mr. Satish Seth, vice-chairman of REL and the financial brain behind all the "profit-making" moves of REL. The much-hated digital meters have been one of Mr. Seth's most ingenuous offerings.
First the consumers were told that their old DVB meters were tampered. Many of them were made to pay hefty penalties, so that REL made more than Rs 1 crore from these penalties. Then these meters were thrust upon the hapless consumers.
Nobody can disagree that Mr. Seth and his men have an earthy sense of business. If Delhi's auto-rickshaw drivers could get their meters to run faster so that they could overcharge the consumers, why can't REL do the same on a much bigger corporate scale?
After the installation of the new meters the consumers' bills shot up two to three times. REL always claimed these were state-of-the art, tamper-proof meters. Of course, with friends in positions of power REL saw to it that nothing happened to it. In any case, if the government can't even touch auto-rickshaw drivers, is it not too much to expect it to lay its hands on a big corporate like REL.
Mr. Seth's sins are now however catching up with him. There have been numerous complaints about cheating the consumers through the new digital meters "running fast". Recently, the company came under fire from Delhi MLAs. They complained, "the government had become a private limited company", where consumers had no way of seeking redressal.
Incidentally, Mr. Seth is apparently oblivious of the havoc he has wreaked and continues to be an Anil Ambani pointman with vast connections among politicians thanks to his relations with a Maharashtra government cabinet minister. Earlier, Mr. Seth had advised
on a global tender envisaged for REL's Dadri project. The said tender never took off.
Despite all this Mr. Seth has continued to grow in stature because of his closeness to the erstwhile telecom minister in the NDA government. Incidentally, he has now ditched the said minister.
An independent PR agency
---
Press release service and press release distribution provided by http://www.24-7pressrelease.com# # #
Read more Press Releases from Dipayan Mazumdar:
