Haryana plans stern steps against power pilferage

By Our Special Correspondent

CHANDIGARH, DEC. 28. The Haryana Government has decided to tighten the noose around those indulging in theft of power by adopting stringent measures against such people.

The Chief Minister, Mr. Om Prakash Chautala,who reviewed the functioning of power utilities on Wednesday, also directed them to keep their house in order as the consumers should not be expected to bear any undue burden for the laxity or inefficiency on their part.

Referring to the observation of the Haryana Electricity Regulatory Commission about the level of line losses being about 41 per cent, he said it was clear that for almost a decade now, the transmission and distribution losses had been hidden deliberately at the cost of the public exchequer.

Mr. Chautala said four units of a Special Task Force would be created by the Power Utilities with the coordination of Police Department to check theft of power. These units would be stationed at Panchkula, Hissar, Gurgaon and Rohtak. Also, criminal cases would be registered against those officials who are found indulging in theft of power either for their own gain or conniving with others for such a corrupt practice and the punishment could lead to dismissal from service.

Mr. Chautala said that it had been decided in principle to release only metered connections in future. He also directed the Power Utilities to take active steps to reduce the transmission and distribution losses to the acceptable levels of 16-17 per cent in the shortest possible time. He said they should strive to reduce the line losses by at least 5 per cent in the coming year. As a measure to detect theft and reduction of line losses, he issued instructions for the installation of meters for all categories of consumers in the State by December 2001. Bulk meters would be installed at all sub divisions to keep an eye on supply and distribution of power. Stern action would be taken in those cases where there would be more gap than the prescribed norms between supply and distribution of electricity.

He also ordered the posting of two or three more Superintendents of Police in the vigilance cell of the Power Utilities to strengthen it in view of the new action plan. He said that voluntary disclosure scheme would be introduced to enable the consumers to disclose their load of power themselves as it would enable the Power Utilities to provide better service to the consumers.

The Chairperson of the Power Utilities, Mrs. Meenaxi Anand Chaudary, said that as a result of the austerity measures, especially in administrative and establishment, expenditure had been reduced by Rs. 3.70 crores during 1999-2000. Aggressive measures adopted to check wasteful expenditure included imposition of ban on fresh recruitment. Also, no vacancy would be filled up despite the fact that, on an average, 1000 employees retire every year. A prorata cut had also been enforced on administrative and general expenses in the Utilities, she added.

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