325 meters found stashed in Amritsar; PSPCL officials under lens

PK Jaiswar

Amritsar, May 19

Two days after the recovery of a huge quantity of missing power cables and other equipment worth lakhs of rupees from two private godowns, the enforcement wing of Punjab State Power Corporation Limited (PSPCL) made another recovery of unaccounted power meters from a room in the Ghee Mandi power subdivision here.

The two godowns from where the seizure was made were located on the premises, allegedly hired by a junior engineer, of a shrine near Ghee Mandi gate area.

The incident has brought the spotlight on alleged negligence of senior officials of the department and many heads are likely to roll while preparing and filing the final report in the case. Sources alleged that the officials failed to fulfil their duty and check the suspicious activities of the Junior Engineer. The meters were allegedly collected in the last 10 years.

On Friday, the enforcement wing seized 325 unaccounted power meters which were never deposited with the department. These meters should have been submitted to the ME laboratory of PSPCL for checking power theft, said an official wishing not to be named. Besides these unaccounted power meters, the enforcement wing also recovered a huge quantity of scrap from the room which was under the supervision of the JE.

Ideally, it is the duty of an executive engineer and SDO to check the records and supervise the functioning of lower-rank officials. Nevertheless they failed to fulfil their moral duty. Ironically, the said JE remained posted at the same subdivision for the past 16 years raising a question mark, the sources said.

“These power meters seized by the department should have been sent to the ME laboratory for checking unbilled units. However, it did not happen, which caused huge financial losses to the department,” said the official.

The official said a comprehensive report was being prepared, which would be forwarded to higher authorities for further necessary action.

Acting on a tip-off, sleuths of the enforcement wing landed at the godowns on Wednesday. They recovered over 1,000 kg of aluminum power cables of different sizes, electric conductors of different sizes weighing around 400 kg, new cable wires of different sizes and LTCT power meters from the spot. The cost of the entire material was around Rs 6-7 lakh.

As per the norms, Powercom employees have to inform senior officials in case he hires a private space for storage of wires and equipment. However, the accused JE had not informed the department about the stores. The material was found from the basement and a room located near the langar hall of the shrine.