Serendipity : Musings of an Islander

The business of Ullu – Banana… By Debkumar Bhadra ­­ Murari Lall needs to build a structure for which he need 10 bamboo poles, neither one more, nor one less. He finds there is only one company in the town namely BEESYNL selling bamboo poles @ Rs 100/- a piece with the condition that the order has to be placed online and the entire quantity required has to be bought altogether and the company will deliver it at the doorstep and that bill once raised has to be paid. Finding no other alternative, Murari Lall agrees to the monopolistic company's conditions and buys 10 poles required to build the structure. Company sends them on a truck to his home. The truck arrives. Against required 10, Murari finds only 5 poles have arrived loaded on an open body truck. Upon asking, the driver said 5 poles might have fallen off the truck hence consider them lost in transit. He then goes on to add, press refresh, the company will resend them. Since the quant...

Electricity Billing and Payment, stuck in the past! By Debkumar Bhadra According to local media reports, Electricity Department, A&N Administration is contemplating raising electricity bills by direct meter reading or provisional bill in the islands ostensibly to ramp up the cumbersome process, which as of now is labour intensive and require repeated visits to customer premise, first for taking meter reading and then for distribution of printed bills. With the instant initiative, it seems the department aims to finish meter reading, billing and distribution all in one go. It is a welcome step, but addresses the actual billing-payment issue only partially. Let me explain . According to data accessed from Basic Statistics, A&N Islands have 1,33,990 consumers during the year 2018-19 of which 91,270 is in South Andaman, 32,660 in N&M Andaman and 10,060 in the Nicobar District. Every month personnel from the electricity department visit each of these indivi...