People stand in queues to pay their electricity bill at the Torrent Power customer care centre in the northern Indian city of Agra September 24, 2012. REUTERS/Brijesh Singh
NEW DELHI (Reuters) - It is rough being an employee of Torrent Power Ltd in the Indian city of Agra. Furious residents regularly take staff of the power distributor hostage or beat them up, stone-throwing mobs besiege the firm's high-walled compound, and one official recently had to be hospitalised after he was hit on the head with a brick.
On some days there are more than 10 protests staged around the city against Torrent, which won the franchise to supply power to Agra in 2009. When it took over, rampant theft and a failure by authorities to crack down on defaulters meant that 70 percent of electricity consumed in the city was not paid for.
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