Power Development Department is among top 3 departments in digital transactions in India, as per an official statement issued earlier this week.
Digital transactions in PDD recorded an increase of 278.77%in the first quarter of the present year over the corresponding period last year. A total of 3.08 lakh digital transactions were recorded in July 2021 alone and a sum of Rs. 35.04 crores was collected via digital mode by the DISCOMS from the consumers, it said.
As has been rightly felt, there is a need for adoption of e-bills across all categories of customers and it can be done by encouraging people to opt out of physical bills and move to e-bills. While it will allow faster billing process, there is a need for the PDD to dispel any fears on the security front.
Maintaining customer satisfaction should be top priority of the department and as such monitoring of progress of the call centre should be done as regards complaints received and their disposal with customer satisfaction as priority.
Customer care needs to be made upto mark and must be made accountable. This will go a long way in changing the entire scenario of consumers’ hardships and complaints.
The e-billing and subsequent e-depositing can avoid long queues in banks by customers.
Last year the Power Development Department came under cyber attack. The department managed to prevent the risk of losing data of lakhs of consumers as a consequence of it. The attack even left ‘Bijli Sahuliyat’ Application and other online services defunct for quite a long period.
One of the saving factors for the consumers and department was that bills for the previous month were already generated and dispatched to the consumers. It avoided confusion and made possible payment through the concerned Bank. However, thousands of consumers were forced to submit the bill at bank branches which was taxing to a number of people for varied reasons.
By acknowledging the attack, the power development department had done better to address the vulnerabilities found and it needs to improve processes and build capacity to respond faster.
Cyber attacks are nothing new. In fact, as a reality, they needed to be effectively dealt with. Like that of other parts of the country, there are many online services which are presently provided in Jammu and Kashmir.
Given the huge number of online users and continued efforts on affordable access, cybersecurity needs to be integrated into every aspect of policy and planning.
