Anti-power theft drive ‘sluggish’; recovery, penalty down by 31%
With the incidence of checking, detection, penalty and recovery of fines imposed in the cases of power thefts in the Faridabad operation circle of Dakshin Haryana Bijli Vitran Nigam (DHBVN) down by almost 31 per cent this year, the recovery of penalty has also come down by 40.69 per cent till January end this year in comparison to the corresponding period last year (2023-24), as per the department. The operation circle has over 6.76 lakh connections at present.
The department has been able to recover a penalty of around Rs 9.24 crore against Rs 15.58 crore imposed in the cases of power theft detected last year till January 31, according to the details compiled by the department concerned. The DHBVN here had checked as many as 8,046 connections from April 1, 2024, to January 31, 2025, it is revealed. Of these, the department imposed a penalty of Rs 24.08 crore in 3588 cases, but has been able to recover only around Rs 9.24 crore in this period.
In comparison, the performance of the department in the first 10 months of 2023-24 (from April 1, 2023 to January 31, 2024) had been better as the nigam checked as many as 11,128 connections and detected 4,912 cases of power supply theft. The authorities managed to recover an amount of Rs 15.59 crore against the penalty imposed of Rs 33.41 crore in that period. The overall amount of penalty imposed and recovered in 12 months of the past financial year has been calculated at Rs 39.97 crore and Rs 20.41 crore, respectively, according to the officials concerned.
As the operation circle is divided into four divisions — Faridabad, Greater Faridabad, Ballabgarh and Old Faridabad — the highest number of 1,376 cases of thefts were detected in Greater Faridabad in the past 10 months of the current financial year. This attracted a penalty of Rs 76.84 lakh. It covers a large number of colonies, including several unauthorised ones. The highest penalty imposed last year was in Ballabgarh division against a total of 1,966 cases in 12 months. The least number of cases have been detected in Faridabad divisions, which include majority of the urban residential sectors.
The decline or the sluggish pace of the drive against power theft is attributed mainly to the Parliament and state Assembly elections that consumed almost seven months and the shortage of staff which adversely affected the drive, claim the sources in the department.
Jitender Singh Dhull, Superintending Engineer, DHBVN, said that the drive had been stepped up against thefts and for recovery of dues from offenders or defaulters.
