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6th training seminar under third phase of the CUTS-FES Joint Programme on 

"Involvement of Consumers in Power Sector Reforms in Rajasthan"

1. This was the final seminar of the current phase of the CUTS-FES programme. The programme was attended by 72 participants out of which almost one third were women. As per the agenda of this phase of the programme, this seminar was primarily focused upon building capacities of grassroots consumer groups/Vidhyut Sudhar Samitis to enable them for advocating for their rights provided by documents such as, Consumer Charter, Standards of Performances etc.
    

2. The programme started with CUTS representative, on behalf of CUTS-FES, introducing the objectives of the programme as well as the seminar to the participants. The success achieved by the programme so far was also briefly narrated to them.  All the participants introduced themselves and explained their expectations to the seminar. People largely expressed their expectation for a sustained communication with service providers; creation of a channel to communicate each other’s concerns; ensuring better participation of consumers in the service delivery; to know about various provisions of consumer charter.
    

3. The participants were mainly constitute of representatives of grassroots consumer organisations/groups; members of Vidhyut Sudhar Samitis; Shri B. C. Mathur, Superintendent Engineer Jodhpur Vidhyut Vitaran Nigam Limited Pali Circle; Shri R. P. Soni Superintend Engineer Rajasthan Vidhyut Prosaran Nigam Ltd.; Shri N. M. Jain Executive Engineer Jodhpur Vidhyut Vitaran Nigam Ltd. Aburoad; Shri M. R. Meena Executive Engineer Jodhpur Vidhyut Vitaran Nigam Ltd Sirohi; Shri Hiralal Chaudhary of Bharatiya Kisan Union Revdar.
    

4. The Executive Engineer of Aburoad explained the provision of the Consumer Charter, in detail to the participants. The session was highly interactive as participants were interested to know more and more about the same.
    

5. CUTS representative also shared the success story from village Piplod of Jhalavar district where people’s participation was successfully achieved and theft of electricity was eliminated from the village. The case highlighted the importance of collective social action as well as better coordination with the service providers.   
    

6. The seminar proved a major breakthrough as the service providers and consumer representatives, who started with a complaining tone to each other, finally ended up with agreeing upon having greater mutual cooperation and participation into the reform process. Following are the some of major breakthrough achieved by this seminar:-

6.1   On many participants raising the issue of inconvenience faced by rural consumers in getting timely bills as well as collection, Shri Mathur immediately announced for distribution company tie-up with a rural cooperative bank that have extensive network in interior rural areas. Once this materialise, consumer can get their bills deposited at the nearest branch of bank. This announcement came as a big relief to the consumers as would reduce their hassle substantially.   

6.2   Admiring the CUTS-FES programme, Shri Mathur announced the dates for similar kind of interaction by organising Chaupal-Baithaks (Village Square meetings) within the Pali circle. He also urged to CUTS-FES to organise more and more such programmes at even feeder level and assured for all the cooperation.    

6.3   Another major breakthrough was of all present stakeholders agreeing upon putting in place an informal but reliable system to gather up-to-date information about the rural areas. It was decided that participant of the seminar and others interested would work as a reliable and authentic information sources about their respective areas. This would help in service provider getting up-to-date information about number of meters with broken seal in the village; theft cases, poles/transformers not in good shape; and so on. This would help the service provider to respond to such cased promptly.

5th training seminar under third phase of the CUTS-FES Joint Programme on 

"Involvement of Consumers in Power Sector Reforms in Rajasthan"

1. This seminar was primarily aiming at; sharing some successful experiences of the CUTS-FES programme and their reliability; identifying the roadblocks to successful people’s participation in reform process; to workout a broader framework for successful people’s participation in electricity distribution in next phase of CUTS-FES programme.
    

2. About 45 representatives of grassroots civil society organisations from each block of the Alwar District attended the programme. The programme started with CUTS representatives, on behalf of CUTS/FES, sharing the agenda for the programme and the outcome so far in terms of creating awareness among consumer groups to get them their rights in the state of Rajasthan. Shri B. N. Sharma, Chairman & Managing Director of Jaipur Vidhyut Vitaran Nigam Limited could not make for this seminar as had to leave to New Delhi for personal reasons, at nick of the time.
    

3. Shri Lal Chand Rathore and Shri Shiv Narayan of Village Piplod, District Jhalawad, were special invitees to the seminar to share their experience of people’s initiative for implementing power sector reform and reap the benefits. In a highly interactive session, Shri Rathore explained in detail that how people of their village were in deep trouble two year ago, not getting enough electricity and that too of poor quality. The illegal theft was rampant in the village and as result of that it was not possible to get adequate electricity to irrigate the crops as well as illuminating the households. This was severely affecting not only the crop production in the village but the studies of children too. The transformer that sulpplies to the village got burned 16 times in a month.

3.1   Determined to improve the situation, Shri Rathore who is Sarpanch of village Piplod received the required inputs from various sources and called for a meeting of the entire village collectively decide not to allow illegal pilferage of electricity. Small groups of 10-15 households were formed and they invested to install coated cable, which is quite tamper proof, and owned the responsibility to ensure smooth function. Two years after that initiative, now people are quite happy for getting adequate supply without interceptions. The electricity transformer that supplies to the village has not burned even once in last two years.  

3.2   Following this successful experience, the nearby village Kisanpura has also stepped in to the similar path and enjoying the benefits of uninterrupted electricity supply like Piplod. The participants of the seminar found this case very interesting and high level of curiosity was generated among them. The presentation was followed by array of questions and answers. The key determinants for successful implementation of such initiatives were discussed at length. It was also analysed that how such examples could be replicated at larger scale.   

4. Shri Niranjan Sharma of SOHARD shared his experience of executing the learning he got from the CUTS-FES workshop organised last year. He explained that after getting the detailed ‘know how’ as well as other requited information on installing solar lighting system from the seminar, he got installed the same lighting system first at the office premise of this organisation.

4.1   Observing a very successful economical and maintenance-free conduct for a reasonable period of time, his organisation decided to facilitate this useful lighting system to four selected villages/Dhanis of the Beheror block. As result of replicating this with extending innovative finance schemes (instalments) to women self-help groups, the quality of living for poor people of these four villages/Dhanis has improved a lot. Not only those women now can work during night hours at their home and earn more, but also their children have the opportunity to study in late evening since they have to work during day hours. 

5. Shri Sanjiv of ‘Humana People-to-People’ organisation, presented another case study on working with communities on water sector reform programme that has been initiated by the union government. The session was a great learning in terms of understanding the sensitivity of such issues and the ‘do’s and dont’ both for the community as well as the concerned service provider.

5.1   He emphasised upon having similar programme on electricity reform too however cushioned that the framework for people’s participation must be decide by extensive consultation with the community. Shri Sanjiv strongly suggested for initiate a direct partnership with people and electricity Distribution Company in the district as was very optimistic about the positive outcome. 

6. Then members of the ‘Vidhyut Sudhar Samiti’ form Village Kyara and Dera shared their experience. These case studies explain the prevailing apathy and insensitivity at Distribution Company’s part. They explained to the participants about the initiative taken up by CUTS-FES last year to develop Kyara and Dera as ‘Model village’.

6.1   The Chairman & Managing Director of the Distribution Company visited both the villages last year and the Vidhyut Sudhar Samiti of Kyara village assured him to remain responsible to get paid for every Kwh consumed in the village, if the distribution of the supply is restored. Similarly, the Samiti of Dera village intimated him that Distribution Company has not issued any bill for consumption since last 10 years therefore they volunteered to do so however cooperation from Distribution Company was solicited.  

6.2   Almost a year has passed however the promised made to people yet not delivered. This case highlighted the possible roadblocks and challenges to the way of implementing people’s participation in reforms. The learning out of these cases, utility/government must deliver the commitments, were also discussed at length. 

7. The seminar was summed up with explaining that the proceedings would be put conveyed to highest level of the distribution company’s management so that the partnership between utility and people could be more meaningful. It was also mentioned that these learning shall also be presented during the state level evaluation workshop, which is to be held at Jaipur during coming March.

1st training seminar under third phase of the CUTS-FES Joint Programme on 

"Involvement of Consumers in Power Sector Reforms in Rajasthan"

1. This was the first event in a series of six training seminars to be jointly organised by CUTS and FES in different parts of Rajasthan this year. The main theme of this daylong seminar was to generate awareness among the representatives of grassroot consumer groups and ‘Vidhyut Sudhar Samiti’ members about the Consumer Charter that has been released by the Rajasthan Electricity Regulatory Commission. The consumer charter is a document that describes the rights of the consumers, which are expected to be honoured by the distribution companies.
    

2. The programme was well attended by  participants from the Chittorgarh district, mainly comprising representatives of grassroot consumer organisations/groups and members of Vidhyut Sudhar Samitis. About 30 percent of the participants were women. Two experts also attended the programme to impart training to the participants, one on consumer advocacy and the other on power sector reforms.
    

3. The local M.L.A. Smt. Madhu Dhadich was expected to attend the programme. But she could not as she had to suddenly move out of Chittorgarh the same day. The programme started with the representatives of CUTS sharing the aim, objectives and process of this CUTS-FES joint programme. The success of the programme so far was also briefly narrated to the participants. It was explained that this time CUTS and FES had decided to generate awareness among the consumers on the Consumer Charter and impart necessary training. This effort would help equip them monitor implementation of the Charter, which is an important tool for improving the quality of services of the electricity supply in rural and semi-urban areas.
    

4. This was followed by an hour-long session to update the participants on the recent developments in the power sector in Rajasthan. This was done with a view to refresh and reinforce their understanding of the subject as well as to explain the scope for interventions by consumer groups to improve the scenario in rural areas. Though better informed about the reforms, the participants still had doubts on the role of political parties and government in the process.
    

5. The next session was an open dialogue between the participants and Shri B. L. Maheshwari, Superintending Engineer, Chittorgarh circle, Ajmer Vidhyut Vitaran Nigam Limited. The session was highly interactive as Shri Maheshwari explained and elaborated to the participants the various mechanisms available, through which the consumers could get their grievances resolved.

   5.1 Shri Maheshwari praised the initiative taken up by CUTS and FES and specifically mentioned that  
         such efforts are very helpful in achieving better coordination and develop a feeling of trust among
         consumers at large.  

   5.2 One major information Shri Maheshwari shared was that of formally recognising the work of 
        ‘Vidhyut Sudhar Samitis’ and mentioned that he would ensure increased association between the
         distribution company and the Samitis. He announced on the occasion that bill distribution in rural
         areas would be done through such registered Samitis henceforth and they would also be actively
         associated in the theft prevention campaign. This is a welcome move, as it would result in improving
         the services in the rural areas. It would also afford some monetary support to these Samitis that
         would accrue through distribution of bills.  

   5.3 On theft prevention issue, most of the members of the ‘Samitis’ were of the view that though they are
         continuously trying to educate the people concerned not to steal electricity, it requires continuous and
         sustained efforts. The issue basically involves changing the mindset of people, which is a gradual
         process.    

6. The post-lunch session was devoted to the Consumer Charter. On inquiring the participants whether they were aware of the Consumer Charter, it was surprising to find that not a single person had any knowledge of the Charter. This brought to the fore the communication gap that exists which results in confusion and mistrust.
    

7. The Consumer Charter was explained to the participants in their own dialect. It was also explained to them as to how they can ensure implementation of the provisions in the Charter.
    

8. Shri Bhanvar Lal Sisodia, consumer activist, lawyer and an expert on social advocacy, then had an hour-long session with the participants and explained to them the process of social advocacy on common problems of the community with special reference to electricity-related issues. Participants greatly benefited from these inputs also because the session was an interactive one.
    

9. The last session was conducted by the CUTS representative to strengthen and reinforce the understanding of the participants about power sector reforms and how they could participate in the reform process. Many consumer organisation representatives raised their doubts on the process through which they could participate in the hearings of the Rajasthan Electricity Regulatory Commission.
    

2nd training seminar under third phase of the CUTS-FES Joint Programme on 

"Involvement of Consumers in Power Sector Reforms in Rajasthan"

1. This was the second event in a series of six such training seminars in the third phase to be jointly organised by CUTS and FES. The focus of this entire programme is on building capacities of grassroots consumer groups to enable them to advocate for their rights provided in relevant documents such as, Consumer Charter, Standards of Performances etc. This is expected to contribute towards ensuring the quality of electricity supplies and services to the rural areas.

2. The central theme of this daylong seminar was to generate awareness among the representatives of grassroot consumer groups and ‘Vidhyut Sudhar Samiti’ members about the ‘Consumer Charter’ which has been released by the Rajasthan Electricity Regulatory Commission. Consumer Charter is the document that describes various consumer rights to be followed by the distribution companies. The rationale is that once the grassroots consumer groups are well aware of their rights they could possibly ensure actual improvement in the quality of service provided to rural areas, by raising their voices in different forums.

3. The programme was well attended by 56 participants from the entire Jalore district, mainly comprising representatives of grassroot consumer organisations/groups and members of Vidhyut Sudhar Samitis, which were formulated by the joint efforts of CUTS and FES.  About 35 percent were women. Shri H. D. Charan, Chairman and Managing Director, Jodhpur Vidhyut Vitaran Nigam Limited, Shri P. C. Balai, District Collector Jalore, and Shri R. C. Sharma, Deputy Secretary, Rajasthan Electricity Regulatory Commission attended the programme along with consumer advocacy expert Shri Mahendra Ojha.

4. It was a valuable and rare experience for the participants as representatives of all stakeholders including top officials from the Distribution Company, Regulatory Commission, and district administration were present to explain their position as well as to constructively discuss each others problems/limitations.

5. In opening remarks, CUTS representative explained the aim, objectives and process of CUTS-FES joint programme to all the participants for their ready reference. The success achieved by the programme so far was also briefly narrated to them. The reason for specifically selecting the subject of ‘Consumer Charter’ was also explained as this would help equip them to monitor the implementation of the Charter and in turn ensure improving the quality of supplies and services in rural and semi-urban areas.

6. Deliberations started with all the participants introducing themselves as well as sharing their expectations from the seminar. Primarily, the expectations were pertained to learning more about the rights and responsibilities of the consumer, understanding regulatory procedures to ensure participation, joining hands with distribution companies in ensuring better services etc. CUTS representative summarised the consumer expectations and Shri H. D. Charan, Chairman & Managing Director of Jodhpur Vidhyut Vitaran Nigam Ltd. responded to these. He informed that hereafter all the major provisions of Consumer Charter shall be displayed outside every field office of Jodhpur Vidhyut Vitaran Nigam Limited.

   6.1   The session lasted for more than an hour. An important piece of information that Shri Charan shared
         was that all registered ‘Vidhyut Sudhar Samitis’ and other consumer organisations could now  
         approach Jodhpur Discom for many of the tasks to be performed at customer interface level. These
         could relate to meter reading, bill distribution, collection etc and this could be further enlarged to
         delegating the electricity distribution under certain feeders to these Samitis. This would not only
         ensure better services in rural areas but also help these Samitis and organisations to earn some
         monetary support that would accrue through distribution of bills. 

7. This was followed by a session by Shri R. C. Sharma, Deputy Secretary, Rajasthan Electricity Regulatory Commission, on Consumer Charter. At the start of the session, he asked those participants to raise their hands who were aware of the ‘Consumer Charter.’ Apparently no one was aware of it.

   7.1  The major discussion was on various consumer friendly provisions made in the document and how  
         grassroots consumer organisations can make use of these provisions for ensuring better services in
         rural areas. The session was highly interactive and participants made many interventions on the  
         provisions made in the document and on how they could play a role in ensuring implementation of
         those provisions at the ground level.  

8. Post lunch session started off with the District Collector Shri P. C. Balai addressing the gathering. He pointed out that dissatisfaction of electricity consumers in the past had often created law and order problems and that such a situation could only be avoided by ensuring adequate supply of quality electricity to rural areas. He categorically mentioned that Distribution Company should issue demand notes only to those consumers it can actually provide connection to.

9. Shri Mahendra Mathur, Executive Engineer, Jodhpur Vidhyut Vitaran Nigam Ltd, Jalore explained the available provisions and procedures through which a common consumer can get his complaints redressed. 

10. The last presentation of the day was on skill enhancement of grassroots activists on consumer advocacy in general and in power sector in particular. This session was also highly interactive where participants were anxious to understand the basics of organised activism vis-à-vis power sector.
     

1. This seminar was the first of its kind organised by CUTS and FES at Bhilwara. It was well attended by 45 participants. The broad objectives of the programme were explained to all the participants at the beginning of the seminar. It was emphasised that while discussing the issues, the gathering must also focus upon possible solutions rather than just flagging the problems.

1.1  Promoting consumer participation in the ongoing reform process was the core theme. The detailed agenda for the seminar included, discussions on various provisions of the consumer charter to representatives of the grassroots consumer organisations. Their role in ensuring compliance, explaining various mechanisms through which the consumers can get their grievances resolved, disseminating the need to other grassroots consumer organisations to join hands with distribution company for providing efficient services and imparting basic inputs for taking up people-centric advocacy was discussed in detail. 

2. Shri Matadin Sharma, Additional Collector (Administration) Bhilwara, Shri R. K. Bakliwal, Superintending Engineer, Ajmer Vidhyut Vitaran Nigam Limited, Shri Hundal Vidhani, Chief Executive Officer, Zila Parishad Bhilwara, Shri Prehlad Rai Vyas Advocate and Expert on consumer issues and representatives of PRIs and grassroots consumer organisations were the participants of this seminar. A good number of women also participated.
    

3. The Additional Collector (Administration) appreciated the efforts being made by CUTS-FES in getting together the consumers in the reform process and urged for organising more such programmes particularly at the panchayat level. He assured all the support from district administration in this regard.
    

4. The Superintending Engineer explained the provisions of Consumer Charter in detail and responded to many quires of consumer representatives.
    

5. Shri Vyas, advocate and expert on consumer issues, conducted the session on people centred advocacy. The session was quite interactive. At the end of the session, representatives of grassroots consumer organisations collectively decided to join hands on many issues and raise their voice to the Regulatory Commission to protect the interests of common consumers.
    

6. The following important points emerged out of the discussions:

·        the Distribution Company should ensure availability of sufficient number of the copies of ‘Consumer Charter’ at all gram-sabhas so that more rural consumers become aware of the provisions made under the charter, and better compliance could be hoped;

·        the existing tariff structures does not reward those consumers who are saving electricity by using it more efficiently. This issue could be collectively raised by all consumer organisations before the Rajasthan Electricity Regulatory Commission (RERC) when it conducts the next hearing for tariffs;

·        nomination of at least one consumer representative in all dispute settlement committees should be ensured so that the credibility of decisions could be enhanced;

·        the need for reducing the discrimination between rural and urban areas in terms of quality and quantity of supply should be examined;

·        high voltage lines over the fields/premises of many consumers are a danger to the lives of such consumers and the Distribution Company should provide an insurance cover against any possible mishap, and

·        the Distribution Company should associate with grassroots consumer organisations in preventing theft, meter reading and bill distribution in rural areas. Leasing of distribution feeders to them could be considered in the long run.
 

1. The seminar attended by 45 participants and started off with CUTS representatives, on behalf of CUTS/FES, sharing the basic theme of the programme and the achievement so far has made in terms of creating awareness among consumer groups to advocate their rights in the state of Rajasthan.
    

2. Shri V. C. Jain, Superintending Engineer, Jaipur Vidhyut Vitaran Nigam Limited, Shri Radha Mohan Sharma Advocate and Expert on consumer issues, Shri Hari Prasad Yogi, President, Consumer Legal Help Society, were among the resource persons at the seminar.
    

3. In addition to that, PRI representatives from the district, selected members of the Vidhyut Sudhar Samities, and representatives of grassroots consumer organisations participated in the seminar.
    

4. The major thrust of this seminar was on imparting the required knowledge to the consumer activists/civil society organisations of the districts about various provisions made under the ‘Consumer Charter’ and ‘Standards of Performance’, which was released by the Distribution Companies some time back following the Regulatory Commission’s directions.
    

5. The idea was to equip these groups with necessary knowledge and skills so that they could raise their voices in an organised manner and ensure actual implementation of the provisions made in the documents called ‘Consumer Charter’ and ‘Standards of Performance’. Though there were many peripheral issues related to the electricity distribution it was made clear to the participants at the beginning of the seminar that the focus of the discussion shall be restricted to the provisions made under ‘Consumer Charter’ and ‘Standards of Performance’
    

6. The specifications of the quality of supply and services that the distribution companies are bound to deliver were explained to the participants at length.
    

7. The next session started with the participants expressing their current level of understanding about regulatory hearings vis-à-vis expectations. As expected, most of the participants were not clear about the role of the Regulatory Commission. They were also not aware of the ‘Consumer Charter’ and ‘Standards of Performance’ to the distribution companies to be adhered, and their role in ensuring compliance of the provisions.  
    

8. Shri Radha Mohan Sharma, lawyer and expert on consumer issuers, delivered a talk  on basic consumer advocacy skills. It was followed by an array of questions to which he responded appropriately. He specifically highlighted safety aspects vis-à-vis consumer rights. At the end of the session, representatives of grassroots consumer organisations collectively decided to join hands on such issues and raise their voices at the Regulatory Commission and other appropriate forums to protect the interests of common consumers.
    

9. In the next session, Shri V. C. Jain, Superintending Engineer, Jaipur Vitaran Nigam Ltd. Sawai Madhopur, described the provisions of ‘Consumer Charter’ and ‘Standards of Performance’ in detail and responded to the queries of participants. This session was the longest one as there were many queries from the participants.
    

10. Shri Hari Prasad Yogi of Consumer Legal Help Society spoke about the interface of the grievance handling mechanism of distribution companies and the Consumer Protection Act.
     

11. In a nutshell, following was the outcome of the seminar:

·       All the civil society groups present agreed to plead collectively before Regulatory Commission to safeguard consumer interests in a democratic and peaceful manner. 

·       They also agreed mutually to remain in touch with each other to ensure free flow of information on the issues of compliance of supply and service standards by the Distribution Company. 

·       All the participants assured to further disseminate the information they received during this seminar among masses. 

·       When a transformer or pole to be erected/replaced in rural areas the distribution companies invariably ask the consumers to transport the same to the site, however also charges from the consumer for that while preparing the cost-estimates. This is an unfair practice that being practiced by all three distribution companies. Looking a he gravity of the issue all participants requested to CUTS to raise this issue at Commission’s Advisory Committee. 

·       Participants decided to adopt a constructive approach and to cooperate with the Distribution Company in their efforts to reduce the theft of electricity. 

·       It was demanded that there should be nomination of at least one consumer representative in all dispute settlement committees, to ensure credibility of decisions. 

·       Quality Standards for supplies and services must be implemented with equal thrust in rural areas also. 

·       Distribution Company to implement the safety related performance standards on priority.

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