Around 25 anti-corruption activists, affiliated to Aatharavu Iyakkam, staged an agitation at the office of Superintending Engineer of Tamil Nadu Distribution and Generation Corporation here on Wednesday crying foul play in upgrading a connection to an industrial unit.
They demanded departmental action against the lineman and the officials responsible for the alleged irregularities happened in upgrading the capacity of the electricity connection to a garment printing unit run by K. Palanisamy at Poyampalayam here.
According to Mr. Palanisamy, he had approached the TANGEDCO officials for upgrading the load from 5 HP to 10 HP a year back.
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“An official who collected certain amount for upgrading the connection told me that the lineman will execute work. The official did not issue receipt citing some trivial reasons. However, the lineman came and upgraded the connection at that time”, said Mr. Palanisamy.
But the miseries started for him soon after, as he was served a notice by TANGEDCO to remit a huge fine for drawing more electricity than the prescribed ceiling in the record book.
“Only then, I realised that the lineman has upgraded the capacity but the same was done through back door process by not entering it into the official record”, he pointed out. S. Eswaran, founder president of Aatharavu Iyakkam, told reporters that it was a clear case of irregularities/corruption that resulted in consumer end up paying fines.
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During the talks held with Superintending Engineer N. Sekar and other senior officials, Mr. Eswaran demanded that the amount collected from Mr. Palanisamy be returned and action taken against the lineman and the engineers responsible for the irregularities. They moved away after officials assured to look into the issue.