TN to launch app to keep tabs on Tangedco engineers, linesmen

The Tamil Nadu government is all set to launch an app that will track the daily work schedule of assistant engineers (AE) and linesmen employed with Tangedco.

The app, which will be unveiled by Chief Minister MK Stalin soon, aims to automatise operation at the junior level while ensuring transparency among workers and eliminating corruption.

App to log in complaints, purchases

Through the app, the government would be able to track the daily work of AEs and linesmen and gauge the promptness with which they respond to complaints. For example, if an assistant engineer wishes to delay installing a new connection at a consumer’s property, he or she will have to log the same on the app.

“Introducing an app for AEs and linesmen is part of automating all operations at the lower level. We have computerised all office work and now slowly we are automating works done by AEs and linesmen,” said a senior Tangedco official.

The official said, at present the work that AEs do on a daily basis is not tracked with only the concerned person being aware of the work he or she does. “Now with the app we will be able to know how much time an AE takes to respond to a complaint and how many complaints a linesman attends to on a single day. Once the app is launched, all AEs and linesmen will have to use the app to attend to complaints,” the official said.

If a consumer has complaints about an electricity metre, the AE will have to use the app to address it and if the need arises for a new metre, he or she will be required to order the same using the app.  “Thus all his work will be recorded on the app and along with this corruption will be controlled,” said the official.

More online payment of bills

Department workers who take metre readings of power consumption through door-to-door visits every two months, however, will continue to use a machine to record the consumption, the official said.

Meanwhile, domestic consumers have started paying bills online. “Nearly 70 per cent of the domestic consumers are paying their bi-monthly bills online. The payment is mainly done through net banking, debit or credit cards. Thus in many areas we don’t have any separate workers to collect the bills,” said the official.

Tangedco has decided not to take cash or cheque if the bill is more than ₹2,000. “All bills which are above ₹2,000 will have to be paid online. Thus in the last few months, payments of bills directly through counters have come down,” said the official.