E-Paper
Ludhiana: ₹19cr penalty imposed as PSPCL detects over 5k power violations
Officials said that 596 violations were detected in January alone including 86 cases of direct power theft, 15 cases of wrong metering involving meter tampering.
In a crackdown on electricity irregularities, the enforcement wing of the Punjab State Power Corporation Limited (PSPCL) has detected 5,109 cases of power violations across Ludhiana district till January this year, officials aware of the matter said.
The violations were detected during intensified inspections carried out over the past several months. According to officials, special enforcement teams inspected 90,373 electricity connections across urban as well as rural areas of the district till January. Of these, 5,109 connections were found violating electricity supply norms.
Official data showed that 684 cases involved direct power theft, where consumers were found drawing electricity illegally by bypassing meters or through unauthorised connections. In another 442 cases, consumers were detected tampering with meters or interfering with their functioning, resulting in lower billing than the actual power consumed.
Further, 134 cases pertained to unauthorised use of electricity, including misuse of domestic connections for commercial purposes, drawing load beyond the sanctioned limit or using electricity under a category different from the one approved. Another 75 cases of unauthorised load extension were also detected.
The remaining 3,774 cases fell under miscellaneous violations. These included extending connected load without prior approval, bypassing meters to suppress actual consumption, shifting meters without permission and other breaches of prescribed electricity supply regulations.
The enforcement drive has also led to substantial financial penalties. PSPCL has imposed fines amounting to ₹19.33 crore so far. Of this, ₹4.89 crore pertains to power theft cases, ₹3.71 crore to wrong metering, ₹2.02 crore to unauthorised use of electricity, ₹8.60 crore to miscellaneous violations and ₹9 lakh to unauthorised load extension cases.
Officials said that 596 violations were detected in January alone. These included 86 cases of direct power theft, 15 cases of wrong metering involving meter tampering, three cases of unauthorised use of electricity and 492 cases of miscellaneous violations.
In terms of inspections conducted during January, Ludhiana West circle recorded the highest number with 3,286 connections checked. It was followed by East circle with 2,314 inspections, Suburban circle with 2,195 and Khanna circle with 2,060 inspections.
Penalty-wise, Ludhiana West circle again topped the list with fines amounting to ₹88.31 lakh, followed by East circle with ₹43.88 lakh, Suburban circle with ₹38.18 lakh and Khanna circle with ₹24.56 lakh.
Ramesh Kaushal, deputy chief engineer of the PSPCL enforcement wing, said regular raids were being carried out based on inputs received from within the department as well as complaints from the public. “Cases of direct power theft and meter manipulation are being dealt with strictly under the Electricity Act, 2003,” he said.
