UPPCL mulls GPS-enabled body cameras for raiding teams
The move, according to officials, comes amid an increasing number of complaints of raiding teams harassing and extorting power users in the name of checking for electricity thefts.
UP Power Corporation Ltd (UPPCL) is planning to make it mandatory for its vigilance raid teams to wear GPS-enabled body-worn cameras during raids on any consumer premise. The move will make it possible to capture real-time audio and video recordings of interactions between the raid teams and consumers for evidence.
The move, according to officials aware of the development, comes amid an increasing number of complaints about raiding teams harassing and extorting power users in the name of checking for electricity thefts, and striking deals with real culprits.
“GPS-enabled body cameras will make it possible to generate evidence from the scene of the incident and an action can always be taken against the guilty raid team members on the basis of that credible evidence,” a senior UPPCL official said.
Such cameras, he pointed out, were already being worn by traffic police cops yielding desired results.
Mandated by the Electricity Act, 2003, UP has set up anti-power theft police stations, one each in every district, to effectively act against theft of electricity by raiding suspected premises.
However, complaints of raid teams bargaining with consumers before lodging an FIR or harassing innocent consumers have been pouring in for quite some time from all over the state. Welcoming the UPPCL’s move, UP Rajya Vidyut Upbhokta Parishad chairman Avdhesh Kumar Verma said it was the need of the hour to put a check on cases of consumer harassment as well as to curb power theft.
“While, in some cases, vigilance teams harass small consumers who are often innocent, in others they let big fish off after striking a deal with them,” he alleged.