The power division on Sunday has organized its regular coordination meeting through a video conference from the Bidyut Bhaban at the city. The State Minister for Power, Energy and Mineral Resources (MPEMR) Nasrul Hamid has inaugurated this first ever video conference based coordination meeting of the division.
While addressing at the coordination meeting the state minister said that, this kind of video conference could save a lot of time of the officials which would also help them spend more time on other official tasks. According to a press release issued by the MPEMR, the state minister said, “we’re about to adopt ERP soon and E-Filing is the first step toward that goal”. He expressed his discontent over the development in adopting the E-Filing system in the organizations of the power sector and directed them to adopt the system at full scale within next June. He also urged on all the respective officials to educate themselves on the basic usage of IT.
Among others, PDB Chairman Khaled Mahmud, Power division secretary Dr. Ahmad Kaykaus and other high officials of the power division were present at the video conference.
The state minister also asked the power distribution authorities to send SMS to their respective customers notifying them about any upcoming load-shedding or so-called ‘load-sharing’ schedules. Answering to a question of the state minister, Rural Electrification Board (REB) chairman replied that, out of REB’s 1 crore and 70 lacs customers, 70 lacs get notification before any upcoming power outage schedule and within the following month about 70 percent of the REB customers would get that SMS. Accordingly 7 lacs and 25 thousands customers of the DPDC out of its total customers of 10 lac and 72 thousands, 3 lac and 72 thousands customers of the PDB out of its total customers of 25 lacs, 2 lac customers of the WZPDC out of its total customers of 9 lacs 85 thousands, 5 lac 80 thousand customers of the DESCO out of its total customers of 8 lacs 14 thousand get notifications through SMS prior to any upcoming load-sharing schedule. However, NESCO’s 12 lac 50 thousand customers don’t get that kind of notification yet.
Power division secretary Dr. Ahmad Kaykaus informed at the meeting that, initiating prepaid meter system in Chittagong has caused a reduction of 5 percent in system loss in that area. He also requested the respective distribution authorities to raise awareness and build up relationships with the customer to save more power.
The state minister said that, the government has a target to maintain accountability, transparency and reduce corruption in all the government projects. “We’re already moving forward with keeping a vision of maintaining customer satisfaction”, said the state minister. He directed the respective officials to initiate new electricity connection in accordance with the regulation of the RAJUK. He also directed the director general of the Powercell to conduct a survey on ‘customer satisfaction’ in power sector.