Public Utilities need to be more consumer friendly. A good thing to say, right ? But it is very necessary. We all depend on public utilities such as the electricity generation and transmission, water works, sewage handling, etc as absolutely essential for a basic level of comfort in the cities. In most times, we have very little contact with these utilities in terms of need for visiting them for complaints or resolving of some disputes, but when such a need arises, it is typically found that most of these utilities lack in terms of being consumer-friendly and understanding the concerns and difficulties faced by normal citizens. One would expect a higher level of courtesy and understanding than what we normally find. Take a loot at the behaviour of Lucknow’s electricity generating utility:

LUCKNOW: The Lucknow Electricity Supply Administration’s (Lesa) high-handedness and the penchant for blaming consumers for any defect in meters has drawn flak from denizens (read consumers) of the state capital. The consumers want necessary changes in the method of meter installation and the way Lesa treats consumer whose meter is found defective.
“They usually come without any notice, apparently in their bid to make fast bucks from a hapless consumer,” charged Sanjay Mukherjee (43), a government servant and a resident of Alambagh. He demanded that the authority should install ‘pool meters’ (a common meter) from where connections could be given to individual consumers. “They can then come and check any time of the day. No individual would be targeted in that case,” he added.

It is necessary for the concerned authorities and Government functionaries to be much more responsive and understanding of the needs and concerns for citizens. And it is really a must that the utility should not automatically assume that a citizen is out to cheat or steal power.