Problem with Presidential Subsidies

“If I survive my problem, I will never again mention the name of the present. I am so afraid that I will not touch not only president’s present but event gifts I will receive from my relative. Keeping my only child warm cost me made sleepless nights and I have cried lots of tears. If it had to happen in similar way, they should not have given anything to us,” said Dali Khachapuridze, a resident of Kutaisi who a disabled. She applied to the Human Rights Center’s Kutaisi office to complain about her trouble with the Energy Distribution Company.

Dali Khachapuridze and her husband are both disabled. They live on Lado Asatiani Street # 119 in Kutaisi along with one minor child. Their data was recorded in the general data base of Socially Excluded Families a long time ago. The family does not have any gas supply at home and their only way to heat is electricity. In September of 2007 the family received an electricity voucher that was valued at 50 GEL. The Khachapuridzes registered their vouchers at the People’s Bank and received the Act of Acceptance in return. After that the family used the electricity of 150 GEL in November and December, which were especially cold months in 2007. However, all of suddenly they were faced with paying a bill in cash and found that the voucher was not accepted.

“Since I had a voucher I started to use the electricity knowing that I could pay for it would this gift. Before that I always used it economically but now I thought the president decided to help people and I could keep my child warm. This winter has been very cold. So I used a lot of electricity. If I had known that the voucher had no value and I had to pay in cash, I would rather freeze than use the electric heater, and this is how I always survived in the past,” said Dali Khachapuridze.

However, it soon became obvious that electricity meters have not been installed in Lado Asatiani Street where the Khachapuridzes live. Those customers living in the residential building # 119 have not paid their individual bills. Consequently, none of them have the receipts for what they are to pay.  Only one subscriber from the building, Koiava was registered at the Kutaisi Electro Distribution Company. He was collecting money from neighbors but he only paid his bills. When Dali Khachapuridze was asked at the People’s bank to show the receipt on paid bill she showed this receipt.

“Since July of 2007 a new Company, Energo Pro Georgia started distribution in Georgia. The numbers of subscribers were changed at that time as well. Since Khachapuridze and her neighbors have one common meter and another new number was registered in the data base. Consequently, Khachapuridze had to provide not only this but the new receipt from the common meter as well. There has been all kind of misunderstandings that have since resulted,” said representatives of the Western Georgian Central Branch of the Energo Pro Georgia. However, they refuse to make official comments about this specific case.

“How could I know that they changed my meter reading? Let somebody tell me and I could then go provide the right identification. But who will support a person like me with such a matter? First of all I hardly entered the office of electro Distribution Company, and the employees were so rude and impolite to me. I could not understand anything. Instead of supporting me in helping to solve the problem they threatened to create even more problems if I would not stop complaining to them. What more can they do to me as I am left without electricity. My child is freezing as a result of their indifference,” said Dali Khachapuridze.

 
“Because of the mistake made by the electro distribution company the bill of Khachapuridzes was registered in the name of their neighbor, Zaal Kapanadze; the latter already has new meter installed but Khachapuridze is still not supplied with electricity. Khachapuridze is hard pressed to pay a bill of 150 GEL in cash. Such a situation is not an isolated and there are many others who have had their rights blatantly violates based of their dire economic and physical circumstances.

“We kindly request you to provide us with the information in near future why the family of Khachapuridzes cannot use the voucher and what measures will be taken by your company to resolve the problem,” states the extract from the letter to Nikoloz Tsiklauri, the director of the Western Georgian Branch of the Energo Pro Georgia. The letter was sent by the Human Rights Center last week but a reply has not been forthcoming. The problem resolution is simply stated at the Energy Distribution Company: is that a customer must pay for consumed electricity. Otherwise the supply will be disconnected to that household.”

It is natural that the family, which is inserted in the general data base of socially excluded families based on poverty and one that is unable to pay its bill. Now the only solution to this problem is to make a court appeal.  The lawyer for the Human Rights Center’s Kutaisi Office will defend Dali Khachapuridze’s rights should the matter proceed to a court hearing.

Shorena Kakabadze, Kutaisi