The Hindu : New Delhi News : Discom attempts to rein in power thieves

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Saturday, Sep 23, 2006
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New Delhi

Discom attempts to rein in power thieves

Staff Reporter

Pamphlets listing penalties in Hindi, Urdu being distributed

NEW DELHI: "Those caught stealing power face penalties running into lakhs and up to three years in prison... ." Lakhs of pamphlets bearing this message in both Hindi and Urdu are being distributed by power distribution company BSES Yamuna Power Limited in the Capital's trans-Yamuna colonies where the incidence of power theft is the highest in the city.

The leaflets are aimed at both educating and sensitising the residents towards the issue of power theft.

While in August both BSES Yamuna and BSES Rajdhani booked over 1,900 cases of electricity theft with a load of over 10,000 kW that entailed penalties of over Rs 21 crores, the awareness and warning campaign through leaflets has been launched in an attempt to bring about some semblance of order in the theft-prone areas.

Besides educating the residents, the leaflets with graphic images are also telling consumers that power theft is a criminal offence for which the maximum punishment is imprisonment for three years under various sections of the Indian Electricity Act, 2003, and the Indian Penal Code.

BSES Yamuna, which since July 2002 has reduced aggregate technical and commercial losses by around 20 per cent, has now also drawn up a list of 150 high theft prone areas where the quantum of theft is over 60 per cent.

Incidentally, BSES Yamuna was the first discom to get a Central Industrial Security Force company for curbing power thefts.

But as this recent distribution of leaflets has shown, even the coming in of additional force has not affected those indulging in power thefts in any way.

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