Govt chalks out plan to check power theft

VADODARA: The Gujarat government is in a mood to curb the "social evil" of power theft in the state. Minister of state for power Saurabh Dalal said Gujarat Electricity Board is planning to take strict measures and has asked the vigilance department to step up its drive of detecting cases of power theft.
Dalal was in the city on Saturday to review the working of each department of the board.
At present, as many as 73 checking squads of GEB, accompanied by the police, SRP and the border wing of Home Guards, have been conducting raids in parts of Saurashtra and Surat in South Gujarat, and the power feeders from these areas have shown more than 20 per cent losses.
Director of the GEB''s vigilance department and additional director general of police Gurudial Singh said raids conducted in the past 10 months have helped in detecting power theft worth about Rs 200 crore. He said a fixed annual target of Rs 250 crore has been fixed for the first time.
Modern equipment have been provided to checking squads for checking installations. Police protection will help the squads perform their duty without fear of being manhandled. Most of these raids have been carried out in areas like Porbandar, Junagadh, Rajkot, Dhoraji, Bhavnagar, Jamnagar, Sanand, Viramgam and also Surat.
With the help of SRP, local police and Border Wing Home Guards, checking of illegal farm connections was carried out in areas in Surendranagar. A number of private transformers have also been seized from this area.
Singh said the vigilance department has demarcated zones of areas which account for high power theft, and most of these power zones are located in Saurashtra and South Gujarat.
Sources said the prevalent rate of electricity duty on the ad valorem basis is one of the factors for increase in power theft. "The different duty rates for different types of consumers has led to increase in theft," say sources.