Power theft: PSPCL detects 220 cases, 57L fine imposed

Kuldip Bhatia

Ludhiana, September 26

In a major drive to curb the menace of power theft, teams of different circles of the Central Zone (Ludhiana) of Punjab State Power Corporation Limited (PSPCL) carried out a special drive and conducted systematic checking in their respective areas in the past two days. PSPCL Chief Engineer, Central Zone (Ludhiana), Inderpal Singh, personally coordinated the crackdown on power theft.

The teams of officials checked as many as 4,092 connections, including 127 connections in east circle, 1,594 connections in west circle, 844 connections in sub-urban circle and 1,527 connections in Khanna circle. The Chief Engineer said they detected a total of 220 cases, which included 78 cases of power theft, six cases of unauthorised use of electricity (UUE) and 136 cases of unauthorised extension (UE) and some other irregularities.

The total fine charged from defaulters in all 220 cases was Rs 57.04 lakh.

Of the 220 cases, 94 were detected from suburban circle, followed by 73 from Khanna circle, 42 from west circle and 11 from East circle.

During the drive, maximum connections were checked in west circle — 1,594, of which 469 were alone checked in the Aggar Nagar division with the special efforts of Executive Engineer (Aggar Nagar) Daljeet Singh.

Inderpal Singh said the power utility was committed to controlling the menace of power theft in the state with clear-cut instructions from CMD Baldev Singh Sran and Director, Distribution, DPS Grewal, to take strict action against consumers using illegal connections.

He said the department wants to curb power theft which had made a big dent in revenue and put restraint on the objective of providing uninterrupted supply to consumers. The ongoing action against power theft would be intensified and stringent action would be taken against consumers violating th power consumption norms, the Chief Engineer said.

4,092 power connections checked

The teams of officials checked as many as 4,092 connections, including 127 connections in east circle, 1,594 connections in west circle, 844 connections in sub-urban circle and 1,527 connections in Khanna circle. The Chief Engineer said they detected a total of 220 cases, which included 78 cases of power theft, six cases of unauthorised use of electricity (UUE) and 136 cases of unauthorised extension (UE) and some other irregularities.

#PSPCL