₹23.83 crore recovered from over 6,000 PSPCL violators in Ludhiana

More than 1.10 lakh power consumers covered during the inspection drive, 791 of violations directly linked to power theft, says Punjab State Power Corporation Limited

The Punjab State Power Corporation Limited (PSPCL) has recovered ₹23.83 crore from 6,114 consumers for violations, such as theft, metre tampering and unauthorised power use across the district.

According to the PSPCL, inspections are conducted based on abnormal load patterns and feeder-level loss mapping. (HT file)

The corporation stated that its ongoing checking drive throughout 2025-26 fiscal covered 1.10 lakh consumers in urban, suburban and rural pockets. Officials said the drive aims at uncovering a deeply entrenched pattern of irregular consumption that continues to put pressure on both revenue and grid stability.

According to the annual enforcement data for financial year 2025-26, out of the 1,10,003 electricity connections checked, 1,01,038 were domestic household accounts as the campaign was heavily focused on residential consumers and suspected misuse clusters.

The inspections led to the detection of 6,114 violation cases, prompting the utility to impose penalties worth ₹22.87 crore. Officials said the ₹23.83 crore recovery figure included current-year realisations along with pending dues and theft-related recoveries from earlier assessments.

The data showed 791 cases directly linked to electricity theft, including illegal hooking, meter bypassing and tampering. These theft-specific cases alone attracted ₹5.39 crore as penalty.

The high number of detections has once again brought attention to the recurring theft pockets in Ludhiana, where officials have repeatedly flagged suspicious load patterns, direct tapping from overhead lines and deliberate metre manipulation. Such practices not only erode public revenue but also place excessive stress on feeders and transformers, often leading to local breakdowns and avoidable outages.

The positive side is that our detection rate and recovery have both improved significantly this year. Consumers are becoming more aware that violations will not go unnoticed. At the same time, the number of theft cases shows there are still pockets where illegal practices remain a serious concern, and that is where we are intensifying targeted action,” the officer said.

Officials said the inspections are increasingly being driven by consumption analytics, abnormal load patterns and feeder-level loss mapping, allowing teams to identify high-risk localities before conducting surprise checks.