Discom gets tough on power thieves, Rs 5cr in penalty still not recovered

In a city like Gurgaon, there are areas where thefts continue to happen, as reflected by the number of police complaints filed over the past six months.

More trouble could be store for people who have tampered with their electricity metres or obtained illegal power connections.

In April, the vigilance team of power discom DHBVN had caught 22 police personnel at Gurgaon police lines for power theft. (Parveen Kumar/HT)

The Dakshin Haryana Bijli Vitran Nigam (DHVBVN) has asked its vigilance team to check areas prone to power theft and lodge police cases. Besides that, the discom will also launch a drive for the recovery of penalty.

It is worth noting that the power theft and recovery of penalty had been major challenge for the DHBVN. In a city like Gurgaon, there are areas where thefts continue to happen, as reflected by the number of police complaints filed over the past six months.

“More than 3,000 police complaints pertaining to power theft have been registered this year. We will continue to check on areas and localities based on tip-offs. Our aim is to stop the theft and improve the distribution system,” said Amarjeet Kataria, deputy superintendent of police, vigilance, DHBVN.

The DHBVN officials held a meeting on Wednesday in this regard.

“Our aim is improve the electricity distribution in the city. We have to curb thefts and also recover a penalty totalling Rs 5 crore that is still pending. We have requested our vigilance team to act against those who have not paid the penalty,” said KC Aggarwal, superintending engineer (SE), DHBVN.

“We have also appealed to residents to help improve distribution by informing us about thefts. One can call the DHBVN toll-free number for this purpose,” the SE said.

According to DHBVN, a major cause for power outages is electricity theft. In April, a survey of feeder-wise loss found 74 feeders running at a loss of 50. Another 466 feeders were suffering a loss between 20% and 50%.