JAMMU: Today, Jammu Power Distribution Corporation Limited (JPDCL) warned negligent customers that they would face harsh consequences for any such behaviour on their side and sternly urged the officers to maintain a watchful eye out for instances of illegal connections, metre tampering, and billing irregularities. When Vikas Kundal, the managing director of JPDCL Jammu, paid an unexpected visit to the data centre and customer care centre at Gladni Grid Station, Narwal, he gave these instructions to the pertinent employees. The MD warned that metre tampering puts consumers’ safety at risk by posing a risk of electrical fires, explosions and other safety concerns that could have serious effects, even as he urged them to abstain from any criminal conduct of this kind.Conversely, it will force customers to deal with frequent power outages as a result of their own negligence in engaging in connecting up or tampering with metres. He instructed the employees to closely monitor the hooking and bypassing of metres via online mode and to report any instances of such behaviour to the relevant sub-divisions so that the defaulters would face harsh consequences. The MD examined the customer service centre during the visit and assessed how well the crucial component was operating. He gave the involved personnel instructions to be accessible to address customer complaints around-the-clock. He urged everyone to contact the toll-free lines 1912/0191-2479122 if they had any complaints about power or billing. During the CNET inspection, the MD was informed about the latest system upgrade to the JPDCL software, which connects it to banking software and smart metres to offer a seamless end-user experience. He underlined that JPDCL software needs to be updated often to satisfy the demanding requirements as the company’s customer base grows. He also noted that extensive back-end support will be needed for the installation and transition to smart metres to be successful. Bavinder Kundal, Chief Engineer, Distribution, and other officers accompanied the MD. Anil Verma, the Executive Engineer for the IT & C Division at JPDCL, had previously informed the MD on the general operations of the IT Division.