PATHANAPURAM: A village Panchayat member paid bill to KSEB in a strange fashion, intended as a befitting reply for the official's inept work that failed to find the cause of the power failure in his house that sees power outage 20 times a day.

The member made a fuss by dividing the electricity bill of 9 beneficiaries of the ward into 8000 rupees coins and carrying them in a sack to the office. Pathanapuram Thalavoor gram panchayat member C. Ranjith became an instant star on social media with his strange response that served well to KSEB’s inept work. Ranjith represents Thalavoor Randalummoodu ward where power outages are common.

This area is under the Pattazhy Electrical Section. Despite many complaints, daily power outages are frequent here. Tired of the repeated negligence, Ranjith decided on this unique response. The staff in the billing section were initially nervous but accepted the payment. It took a long time for the staff to count the one, two, five and ten denomination coins. There were various bills ranging from Rs 950 to Rs 3250.

"KSEB and Water Authority are constantly troubling us by increasing tariffs every now and then. There are frequent power cuts in my ward. Power goes off at least 20 times a day in my ward. It would be better if the authorities disrupt the electricity for five hours continuously in a day," Ranjith said.

Ranjith warned that if the power cut continues, he will come again with coins to pay the bills of most of the beneficiaries in the ward. Ranjith is a known face for conducting unique protests over the years. He once carried a signal light on his head in protest against the unavailability of signal lights at a dangerous junction. Another time, he reached the panchayat office by wheelchair in solidarity with differently-abled people who found it difficult to reach this same panchayat office which had a cluttered road.