Nagaur admin to name and shame power thieves

The Nagaur district administration has come out with an innovative way to curb transmission and distribution (T&D) losses by naming people who steal electricity from power lines, on public hoardings.

Setting a target to reduce T&D losses to below 20%, district collector Kumar Pal Gautam has directed Discom officials to write the names of people in the rural areas who steal electricity, on hoardings outside the gram panchayat offices and for cities the names will be written on hoardings at places allocated by local civic bodies.

“The objective behind the move is to name people who steal power to shame them,” Gautam said.

“People involved in power theft constitute 10% of consumers and because of them the remaining 90% suffer power cut, and overload of transformers among others,” he said.

He added that we do not want to embarrass anyone but the objective is that with public participation, the person is made understood to opt correct way for electricity supply.

“We have asked the elected representatives such as sarpanch and others to counsel people found involved in power theft.”

There are areas where more than 20,000 families reside but only 2,000 of them have electricity connections, he said.

In 2015-16, the average T&D loss of the district was of 42%, which was reduced to 38% in 2016-17, and further to 32% in 2017-18, Gautam said.

THE NAMES OF PEOPLE IN RURAL AREAS WHO STEAL ELECTRICITY WILL BE WRITTEN ON HOARDINGS OUTSIDE GRAM PANCHAYAT OFFICES AND IN CITIES IT WILL BE ON HOARDINGS AT PUBLIC PLACES

“The state government has given us a target to reduce the average loss to 30% but we have further reduced it to below 20%,” he said.

He said the discom will organize three-day camps in areas where there are maximum cases of power theft between August and October.

Besides providing connections at the camps, orientation programmes will also be held across the district, he said.

“We have identified more 50-60 panchayats where there are maximum theft cases and a three-month action plan has been chalked out, under which the camps are being organized.”

Discom officials have been directed to lodge an FIR, if a person is caught stealing electricity from power lines repeatedly, Gautam said.