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Desa harassing customers

23 July 2006, 18:00 PM
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
By Iqbal Hussain, Novodoy Housing Society, Mohammedpur, Dhaka
23 July 2006, 18:00 PM
I wrote a lengthy letter in your newspaper on November 18, 2003 about Desa's tricks to harass its customers with the intention to bring benefits for some of its corrupt employees and union members. I have a few flats in Mohammadpur where I live and let my flats. Yesterday, I received this month's electricity bills and to my surprise, I noticed in every bill there is a notice typed which says I owe them big amounts of arrears in the hand-written ledger period prior to December 2000. It also says I have to pay all arrears by 31st July 2006 to avoid hefty penalties and surcharges which is only a few days away.

Thirty months ago, I received a notice saying that I owe Desa Tk. 33,000 in one particular meter. In reply to that notice, I asked them to give me a breakdown of the amount relating it to month and year. After that they never bothered me. The interesting thing is that for the same meter they're now asking for Tk. 5,800 for the same ledger period.

Door-to-door bargaining has already been started to mitigate this problem for those unfortunate customers who have lost their five-to-fifteen years old bills.

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I request all customers who have received arrear bills NOT to show their bills to the DESA office to prove their innocence, instead ask DESA to give a break-down of your bill, and make a collective pressure group to resist this blackmailing. I also draw attention of the higher authorities of DESA to take immediate action to stop this malpractice to cover the corruption of their employees. I also draw the attention of legal experts to give their opinion whether DESA can ask for 10-15 years old bills which they never demanded in the past.