Karnataka - Bangalore   

BESCOM hard hit by power theft

By Divya Sreedharan

BANGALORE, APRIL 27. Hostile witnesses, racketeers, intangible evidence, and "powerless" officials... Sounds straight out of a Bollywood potboiler.

But it happens in Bangalore. And the agency concerned is the one supplying power — Bangalore Electricity Supply Company Ltd. (BESCOM).

In BESCOM, losses are not too high (transmission and distribution losses stand at 14 per cent while in Mumbai it is 12 per cent), but power theft is still a matter of concern. Further, conviction rates are low.

Besides, some officials feel that the anti-theft law does not exactly favour BESCOM.

The law says that first-time offences can be compounded, with the offender paying a fine or a penalty. "This is not justified in those cases where the offender is clearly at fault," the officials said. And since 75 per cent to 85 per cent of all cases are `first-time offences,' practically no case goes to trial."

To make matters worse, in the cases that do get tried, BESCOM often loses out because "witnesses turn hostile, or we end up without any concrete evidence," officials said. "Or the Public Prosecutor does not understand the technicality involved. Often, the case is thrown out on this basis," they added.

Officials claim that there are organised gangs of "professional offenders" helping industrial and domestic consumers steal power. "Some of these professional offenders are former BESCOM or Karnataka Power Transmission Corporation Ltd. employees. We are trying to pin point them," the officials said. While both industrial and domestic/AEH (all electric home) consumers stole power, "with the latter categories, the number of units stolen is fewer," the officials pointed out.

Some other officials in BESCOM disagree with the view that the compounding provision is more of a hindrance. "The decision whether to go ahead with a case or simply compounding it, is left to the investigating officer," they said.

According to them, big industrial consumers booked for theft some times preferred to argue a case than get it compounded.

"That is because they will otherwise end up paying huge sums as fines," the officials explained.

But they too agree that quite often, at trials, "a full reflection of the gravity of the case is not achieved and the case is dismissed. Of course, we can appeal, but Government agencies are generally lethargic in that aspect," the officials observed.

But "the conviction rate is better now compared to the pre-Anti-Theft Law days," they added.

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