Consumers irate over Aadhaar linking for Tangedco e-bill

CHENNAI: Power consumers are irked over Tangedco making it mandatory to link Aadhaar with the service connection number to pay their electricity bills online or at counters at section offices.

Many consumers trying to pay their bills online were directed to link their Aadhaar before proceeding to payment. “On trying to pay the electricity bill to @TANGEDCO-Offcl online it led to a page asking us to link#AadharCardUpdate and then we get the following message. Anyone else facing the same issue?” tweeted commentator Sumanth Raman.

After the State government mandated linking Aadhaar with the electricity service connection number to get the subsidy, Tangedco provided a link on its website to seed Aadhaar last week and also started accepting Aadhaar seeding over counters as well. K Sudhakaran, a resident of Perambur said that he got an SMS from Tangedco to link Aadhaar with the service number. “As my pay-by date was November 24, I tried to pay the bill on November 22 when it directed me to the Aadhar linking page instead of accepting my payment. Even after linking my Aadhaar, I was not able to make payment, ” he said. Several consumers have complained that Aadhaar linking has failed with a message: “Sorry for the inconvenience caused. Please try again after some time”.

When asked about the consumer complaints over Aadhaar linkage, a senior Tangedco official said that the linking of Aadhaar is a simple process and wanted to complete it at the earliest. “The online Aadhaar linking process will be completed only after the section officers approve it in our system after verification. If they linked the Aadhaar through the counter, it will be linked instantly, ” the official said. On the glitches faced by the consumers, the official said that they were addressing them one at a time.