A very useless helpline for power woes

The emergency services launched by Paschimanchal Vidyut Vitran Nigam Limited for power consumers have not been able to address residents’ needs. Both the toll-free number and the 24-hour SMS service for consumers’ grievances have proved a dismal failure.

While some consumers complained that they only received a complaint reference number when they called the helpline, others said they did not get information about the reason behind the outage or its restoration despite repeated calls. Many consumers also complained of the toll-free number being busy. “On Monday, I complained twice, but I did not get a satisfactory reply from the department,” said a Sector 28.