Say NO to Injustice!

Thursday, February 11, 2010

We wanted a new LPG gas connection at our house in Pune. The old gas connection that we had in Mumbai couldn’t get transferred to Pune because our HP gas regulator was misplaced by the tenant in our Mumbai apartment. We, however, had an old gas regulator and a couple of cylinders to be used till the time we got our new connection.


My husband visited the nearest branch of HP Gas to get the connection. Even after making seven rounds of that branch office of HP Gas, he was curtly told by the official in charge of giving new connections to come the next day at 11.00 am. My husband had started getting frustrated by then and asked me to continue using our old gas regulator and exchanging our empty cylinders with the filled ones by paying a little extra money to the man delivering cylinders in our area. I didn’t like that idea and asked him for the directions to the Gas office to go there the next day.


At the Gas office, I was rudely told to wait for an hour or two for the ‘Sir’ who issued new connections. I informed that my husband was instructed to be there at 11.00 am and I had come in his place at the exact time, why then I was asked to wait. Nobody bothered to offer a reply. I stood there with others like me for about half an hour when a woman employee at the office started taking our filled application forms and fees. Somebody said that he already had a cook-top and didn’t want a new one with the connection. It was told that the cook-top had to be bought with the new connection. By the time my turn came, the cylinders got finished, and I was asked to deposit my application form and come again the next day. The next day, I was fortunate enough to see the elderly ‘Sir’ this time, and told him that I had come to take the new connection. He asked me to come after 2 days as the stock hadn’t arrived by then. I felt a rush of blood in my head and took the ‘sir’ to task by asking him to give me his boss’s phone number. He arrogantly said that I could do whatever I wanted, but he had decided not to give me the connection. I shouted for the number and somebody obliged. I talked to the lady on phone and told her that it was the 9th time that my husband and I were made to visit the gas office and now I was flatly denied a connection. She politely asked me if the person in charge of the new connections had asked us to come at a certain time and then not given the connection. I stressed the number 9 while repeating what I’d already told. She asked me to give the phone to the concerned person. After talking with him, she gave me the number of a still higher official and told me to get in touch with him. I talked with the higher official and he assured me that my gas cylinder, regulator, gas pipe and the Consumer Card would reach my home by 4.00 pm the same day.


At around 3.30 pm, I saw a gas delivery person in my building’s parking area. I asked him if he had come to set up the new connection at my house. He laughed at my face and said that in his entire service as the gas delivery man, he had never delivered the new connection at anybody’s house. I said that one of his bosses had told me that it was the responsibility of the Gas office to bring the new connection to the consumer’s house and set it up. The man looked puzzled and said that whoever got the new connection, took the entire kit home by himself. I waited for my new connection patiently and at 4.15 pm, my door-bell rang. I found the same man with whom I had talked in my parking area come with my new cylinder, regulator, gas pipe and a cook-top. I told him that I already had a cook-top and didn’t want another with my connection. He once again informed me about the tradition of his office to compulsorily give the cook-top with the new connection. I too told him that his boss had clarified that buying a cook-top with the new connection wasn’t compulsory and I could ask for the refund of the money charged for the cook-top. This time, he didn’t argue and quietly took away the cook-top with him.


This incident exposed not only the corrupt functioning of a particular office providing an item of utility, but also the extent to which people tolerate high-handedness and dishonest practices. Time, Money and Effort of the consumer can be valued by the service provider only when the consumer himself values them over his tendency to take the path of least resistance. One who tolerates injustice is as guilty as the one who perpetrates it, remember?