GHMC takes on CPDCL over road digging

Approaches police to file case against power official

Lack of coordination between GHMC and the Central Power Distribution Company of Andhra Pradesh (APCPDCL) came to the fore on Friday when the corporation approached the police to file a case against the discom's Assistant Engineer posted in Banjara Hills division.

The corporation filed a written complaint with the Jubilee Hills Police Station, about the unauthorised digging of the road at four or five locations in the division, reportedly to lay power cables.

It held the company's AE (Jubilee Hills) responsible for the same, and sought the police to initiate legal action against him.

However, after hearing out both sides, the police thought better of filing an FIR, and asked the parties to resolve the issue amicably between themselves.

While the GHMC claimed that the discom is solely responsible for obtaining road cutting permissions after paying due charges, the company officials sought to blame it squarely on the consumer who is authorised by the company to get his work done by outsiders.

“How can the company not own the responsibility for road-cutting without permission and transformers being erected haphazardly on footpaths? We have alerted the Assistant Engineer a number of times about the illegal digging, but got little response,” complained Mohan Singh, the Executive Engineer, GHMC.

Police complaint was the last resort after the Discom failed to take notice of the violations even after being asked by the GHMC Commissioner, he said. However, the Discom officials claim that it was the responsibility of the consumers to obtain road-cutting permissions from the GHMC, owing to the turnkey nature of the works involved.

“To avoid delays in procuring materials, we sometimes grant permission to the consumer to buy material of prescribed standard from outside, and hand over the works to a licensed contractor.

However, our officials are liable to supervise the works upon payment of certain fee,” informed an official from the company.

CPDCL officials are responsible for obtaining permissions only if the works are carried out by the company.

In such a case, the estimate prepared by the officials includes road-cutting charges payable to the corporation.

However, in case the works are contracted to outsiders, the onus of obtaining permissions lies wholly with the consumers in question, the official claims.