As the registration process for the much-awaited Gruha Jyothi scheme, under which eligible households will get free power up to 200 units, began on Sunday, a total of 55,000 consumers from across the State registered for it until 6 p.m. However, for many citizens, the first day of registration was slightly disappointing as the Seva Sindhu portal failed to open on mobiles and computers.
While the registration for the scheme was originally scheduled to begin on June 15, it was postponed to June 18 to fortify the Seva Sindhu portal to handle the number of applications which would be received. On Sunday afternoon, consumers went on to the Seva Sindhu portal only to realise that the page leading to the registration process was not opening.
The registration process was scheduled to begin at around 11 a.m. at Bangalore One, Karnataka One and Grama One centres and 3 p.m. onwards for the public as well as at Gram Panchayat and electricity offices. Although the portal could initially not be accessed even at the Karnataka One and Grama One centres, in the later hours of the afternoon, some consumers could finish the registration. This too was characterised by a few glitches, including a delay in getting OTPs.
Vijay Prabhu, a resident of Dongarkery in Mangaluru, along with his neighbour Ganesh Shet, had gone to a Mangaluru One centre. After giving Aadhaar Number and mobile number, Mr. Prabhu did not get OTP to authenticate the Aadhaar. He had to wait for about 15 minutes to get the OTP and then complete the registration process.
“These are usual glitches at the start of the scheme. I hope this scheme lasts for the next five years,” said Mr. Prabhu.
In Bengaluru, some Bangalore One centres were not even open as it was a Sunday and most relied on their phones and computers to access the Gruja Jyothi registration portal. Only by around 8 p.m. did the portal become accessible to some people. “I kept all my details and documents ready to register as my monthly average in the last year had been 190 units. However, I could not access the link provided by the government in its announcements as an error message about server unavailability kept popping up throughout the day. Moreover, the Seva Sindhu portal itself has a lot of lag issues and the response time is very bad,” said Sriharsha M., a resident of Jayanagar.
Officials of the e-Governance Department acknowledged that many consumers were facing glitches. “It was easily rolled out at Karnataka One and Grama One centres, but due to a few data errors handed over to us by Escoms, members of the public could not access it. By Monday morning, it will be accessible to everyone,” V. Ponnuraj, Secretary to Government, Department of Personnel and Administrative Reforms (e-Governance) told The Hindu.
The Energy Department said that there was a good response to the registration of the scheme on the first day. “The registration simultaneously started at Karnataka One, Grama One and Bengaluru One centers across the State. There was a good response from the consumers to register for the scheme. In spite of it being Sunday, officials of all Escoms were in the field, supervising the registration process and making it hasslefree,” said a press release.
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