When the Government decided to go around the Supreme Court ruling that disallowed reservation for SC/ST’s in private unaided educational institutions, the Congress would never have visualized the can of worms that got opened. In a sign of intra-party power plays (or the desperation of a neglected man to make his mark), the education minister used the powers in the new law to propose reservations for OBC’s in educational institutions. And of course, given the state of our polity and the political implications of OBC support, there is not a single party in the country that would go against this proposal. The proposal however horrified a number of students, who were aghast at the idea of a massive increase in the number of reserved seats in educational institutions, including the ‘elite’ ones such as AIIMS, IIT’s, and IIM’s.
Given that any number of agitations were not going to stop the Government, pushed to the backfront by the pressure of their allies, eager to see these quotas implemented. The case naturally went directly to the Supreme Court, which initially itself pushed the Government on the backfront by staying the implementation of the law, and asked a number of hard questions to which the Congress did not have many answers. The Government tried hard to defuse a growing upper caste anger / backlash by promising that seats would be increased so that current general seats would not be affected, and institutions would be given additional funding so that they would increase infrastructure accordingly. The Congress knows that they would not be able to harness any of the OBC seat anyway, these are promised to the regional parties that bank on the OBC vote.
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Even before the privatization of power distribution in Delhi, there were plenty of complaints regarding shoddy customer behavior by the staff of the then Government electricity arm - DESU. It was expected that after the work was handed over to private companies, things would better. Some customers reported improved behavior, but there were still a large number of complaints that keep on coming in.
Consider the case of a customer who reports that the meter got burnt, but the private electricity company takes no action. Instead, much later, it accuses the customer of power theft, and hands over a whopping bill to the customer; and in the worst sort of behavior, threatens to use the powerful anti-theft bill to force the customer to make payment. It is only when the customer complained to the customer board that some positive action took place:
NEW DELHI: Pulling up BSES Yamuna for sending an unaccounted bill of Rs 1.5 lakh to a consumer, the state consumer commission has slapped a fine of Rs 50,000 on the discom and also directed it to refund the bill amount to the complainant.
Justice Kapoor said: “On receiving the complaint, the discom should restore electricity immediately and ensure that necessary action is taken at the site. The burnt meter should be removed and tested to see the cause of the fire. A new meter should be provided within three days. Thereafter, a bill based on the estimated energy consumption pattern of 6 months prior to and 6 months after the period during which meter remained defective has to be raised.”
The basic problem remains that most of these companies are not geared to handle customer problems, and tend to be behave in a way that is not suited to handle the needs of customers. This was a customer who complained, but there will be thousands others who do not know how to complain and get pushed by the strong action of these companies.
How many times have you dreaded the prospect of paying a utility bill. Where the electricity or water is provided by a Government department, the prospect of queuing up outside a dingy office, with a long queue and in the hot sun is one that most people shirk from doing, until absolutely necessary. Hence the concept of either the friendly neighborhood all-purpose man who will do this duty for a price, or the private companies who are making it a business to make it easy to pay utility bills. However, sometimes even the Government can think about citizens, and make it easier for them to pay such bills:
BANGALORE: Ever wanted to pay your utility bills while at a mall or supermarket? This could soon be possible, with the directorate of Electronic Delivery of Citizen Services (EDCS) likely to set up BangaloreOne kiosks at shopping centres soon.