New meters to check power theft

In the first phase, the Board has completed installing 1,250 meters among the large-scale consumers. The remaining 1,550 meters shall be installed by February next.

In the second phase, the Board will take up the 16,000 medium-scale consumers, who contribute nine per cent revenue to the Board. The entire exercise will be completed in the next two years, according to the sources.

The small-scale and domestic consumers will also get new meters within a fixed time-frame.

The funding arrangements for the purchase of electronic meters required for industrial and poly-phase commercial and domestic consumers, was in progress at various levels, added the sources.

They admitted that though the new meters were found to be fit for large-scale consumers, it would take some time to get effective meters for other consumers.

Meanwhile, Chief Engineer (Enforcement) Suresh Gupta said that during the first six months of the current financial year, the Enforcement wing had conducted a total of 17,234 raids, had detected 6,785 cases of irregularities and had levied as penalty a sum of of Rs 20.60 crore. In comparison, last year, a total of 26,762 raids were conducted, 10,485 irregularities detected and a fine of 51.77 crore imposed.

He said that in order to assess the scale of theft, auditing of Amritsar city, Ludhiana city circles, Zirakpur, Mohali, Gobindgarh and Khanna divisions had been undertaken. Every month, the incoming and outgoing energy was being measured and monitored and the exercise had produced good results.

Gupta said that the Board had created 10 mobile meter-testing squads for checking the accuracy of the equipment installed on the premises of large supply consumers.

The Enforcement Wing and Board’s other agencies had jointly launched a campaign to provide signed paper seals for rice shellers and other seasonal units in order to check power pilferage. Mass raids and intensive checking were also going on, he said.

Gupta said that power theft was on the rise because of shortage of fuel, and also because people did not want o pay for the electricity they were consuming.