Allwyn Mascarenhas

Daijiworld Media Network - Mangaluru

Mangaluru, Apr 25: A brave act sometimes can bring change in the system. This is exactly what happened when a former corporator, stood up against an unfair tariff imposed by Escom. As a result of his fight, an amendment was made to a clause which gave relief to all related cases in the state.

James Victor D’Mello aged 74, popularly known as J V D’Mello, who had served as the corporator of Mangaladevi ward in the 90s, built a building with commercial space on the first floor and residential use over it for his family in 2015 near Bolar in the city. The ground floor was rented out to Karnataka Bank. Following a controversial clause in the KERC Regulations 2004 Act, local power supplier Mescom had charged him commercial rates. The reason - his usage of commercial power was more than 25% of the total sanctioned.

According to KERC Regulations 2004 Act, if the sanctioned commercial load is 25% or less than the total combined load of the entire building irrespective of ownership, then it shall be considered as residential building for application of tariff for common area loads and for application of arranging power on HT basis.

D'Mello noticed that everything was not the way it should be when Mescom engineers told him that the it was billed as per Clause (3.1.1(A)) of the KERC Regulations 2004 Act. The authorities stated that commercial tariff would be levied for power consumed by any other use like elevators, water pump, parking facility lights, staircase lights, with the exception of residential usage, if the consumer exceeds the 25% of total sanctioned load. They also made it clear to him that they would charge him as per the clause which was commercial tariff. Even the Karnataka Electricity Board (formerly KEB, now KPTCL) told him that they would consider modifying the Act only if more people would come with petitions.

Not satisfied with the explanation from the Mescom officials and with a feeling of injustice, D'Mello started writing articles about the same for newspapers to alert the general public on the issue. Alongside, he also wrote to KERC requesting revision of the KERC Act in 2015.

A year passed by without a response from KERC. D'Mello did not know if his request was ignored or sent further for implementation. He then followed it up with an RTI query in June 2016 and received a reply that his request for amendment of the act was forwarded to KERC.

D'Mello’s battle bore fruit when KERC landed in the city for the public hearing of Mescom's tariff filings. He approached the chairman's personal assistant and informed him that his request for an amendment in the KERC Regulations 2004 Act was pending since 2015. Surprisingly, the personal assistant revealed that his application was accepted in October 2015 and the earlier clause was already modified. A gazette notification was published on November 22, 2016 to notify the same.

D'Mello who has a penchant for social work is a man who is against corruption and believes that one should not give a bribe to get their work done. His fight resulted in the modification of the Act and accordingly, mixed loads consumed for residential purposes will be billed under domestic tariff.

"Nothing will happen easily. We need to fight to achieve something. Paying a bribe and waiting for things happen is a common practice. We need to question the authorities if our work is not done which no one does here. The KERC Act would have got amended long time back if the builders had taken the necessary action and requested for the amendment. All they do is construct commercial residential buildings and sell it. The owners of the flats ignore the power expenses as it gets shared among the numerous families living in the building along with the businesses running in their ground floor," he says.

D'Mello has also written a couple of books 'Motiyaan' and 'Vazra Hazar' in Konkani whose proceeds from sales of the book have gone for charity. His fight is perhaps only one of the many fights that have been waged against injustice in different corners of India.