Doaba saw highest power theft cases in 3 yrs in 2020
JALANDHAR: The PSPCL detected over 40,000 power theft cases and recovered ₹22 crore in penalty from consumers in 2020, which is highest in the past three years, in the Doaba region.
According to the data, the PSPCL checked 1.67 lakh connections and pilferage of some kind in 40,240 meters or connections in Jalandhar, Kapurthala, SBS Nagar and Hoshiarpur districts.
The department imposed a penalty of ₹22 crore on violators and has collected ₹18.70 from them.
In 2019, the PSPCL had penalised 36,125 consumers and 31,180 in 2018.
“Despite the Covid-19 pandemic, teams continued raids to detect power theft. Most were detected from Jalandhar district, especially during the lockdown period,” said Rajit Sharma, deputy chief engineer, PSPCL enforcement wing.
He said of the total ₹22 crore fine, over 50% (₹12 crore) was imposed in Jalandhar district alone. “June to September is usually the peak time for electricity theft,” said Sharma.
Officials said that every year PSPCL suffered a loss of ₹10 crore due to power theft in the region.
He said enforcement squads also monitor the billing performance of outsourced billing companies and recommend disciplinary action if something wrong is found. Services of 5 meter readers were terminated in 2019 and two meter readers were terminated by billing company Sterling Transformers in 2020. The firm was also penalised ₹18 lakh in 2019 and ₹28 lakh in 2020 for various lapses, such as wrong billing and reading concealment.
The department also recommended legal action against the violators and around 2,000 FIRs were registered in this regard across the region, officials said.
Besides the houses and farm theft, department last year found various government departments, including police stations and government schools, using illegal power connections.
“Staff shortage, attacks on PSPCL employees and hindrances to enforcement raids and involvement of some high-profile people is a concern and are some of the major reasons for rampant power thefts in the region,” a senior official said on request of anonymity.