The Hindu : KSEB to crack down on pilferage

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Mar 31, 2002

Southern States

Southern States - Kerala

KSEB to crack down on pilferage

By Our Special Correspondent

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM March 30. The Kerala State Electricity Board (KSEB) is launching a drive against power theft, confident of bringing down the distribution loss from 35 per cent to less than 17 per cent.

The KSEB expects to save 1,800 million units of electricity a year once the problem of power theft is tackled successfully. The financial gain will be in the range of Rs. 400 crores a year, according to the Electricity Minister, Kadavoor Sivadasan.

Addressing a press conference here today, he said the scale at which power theft was going on became evident when an inspection was conducted in the Kundara electrical division recently. Between the transmission point and the distribution point, the loss of electricity was 40 per cent there.

Theft was found to be rampant and the guilty consumers were brought to book. And the distribution loss had been brought down to 17 per cent.

Mr. Sivadasan said technical factors could not, by themselves, account for the 35 per cent distribution loss being experienced by the KSEB. Clearly, cheating was going on all over the State. The campaign against this would cover 100 electrical sections in 100 days in the first phase.

The meters installed at the consumers' end would be inspected in all these sections. The first phase of the inspection would cover 20 per cent of the 65 lakh consumers in the State. Then the verification would be extended to the remaining electrical sections.

Mr. Sivadasan said a majority of the consumers was honest. "They should cooperate with this. The identity of those who provide information on power theft will be kept confidential by the KSEB. The Government and the KSEB management will provide full support to the officials who detect power theft,'' he said.

Mr. Sivadasan said this special drive against power theft was in addition to the usual activity of the anti-power theft squad of the KSEB. Between March 7 and 23, this squad, functioning under the KSEB's vigilance inspector general, had exposed theft of power worth Rs. 1.33 crores. This was a record.

The quality of the meters and the technology being used by the KSEB too were factors contributing to the present high level of distribution loss. Defective meters had to be replaced and the technology upgraded, he said.

Responding to a question, Mr. Sivadasan said that if needed, a new legislation would be enacted to make the punitive provisions for power theft stronger. At present, the crime was punishable only under the lighter provisions of the Indian Penal Code.

Answering another question, he said the move initiated by the KSEB two months back to transfer officials from their long-entrenched places of posting had not been dropped. It was merely postponed in response to the representations received from trade unions. The employees, quite justifiably, felt that transfers to new places towards the end of the academic year, when their school-going children were preparing for the annual examinations would be quite upsetting.

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