Anti-theft drive loses steam in district

BAREILLY: The anti-theft drive of the power department, which started off with hundreds of FIRs being lodged against defaulters, seems to have lost steam with the absence of dedicated police and PAC personnel to aid power officials.
What’s more, FIRs lodged against power defaulters seems to have had little or no impact as several people booked in such cases have not bothered to turn up to pay penalties.Power officials alleged that police and administrative officials have not used pressure tactics to force consumers to pay up, which is blunting the impact of the drive.
As per reports, power officials had lodged FIRs against 208 consumers for power theft, only 28 booked consumers have opted to pay penalties and compounding amounts.
Concerned about the lack of dedicated police force for the anti-theft drive, superintendent engineer, Urban, N K Srivastava said, “We could perform better if we get dedicated team of cops from police stations and PAC for our anti-theft teams. Special teams are facing problems in several localities as locals are neither cooperating nor they are paying compounding interest and arrears due to lack of pressure which should be adopted by cops and local administrative officials.”
So far, Vidyut Chori Rokho Abhiyan, in all three Electricity Urban Distribution Division (EUDD) in Bareilly district, has resulted in raising arrears of Rs 3.37 crore since it started in district.
As per power department officials, EUDD 1 circle raised total arrears of Rs 1.33 crore while EUDD 2 circle raised arrear of Rs 65 lakh. EUDD 3 circle had raised arrear of Rs 1.38 crore.
Srivastava said, “As many as 93 shunts so far were caught by the anti-theft team and a detailed report of accused consumers was sent to Local Intelligence Unit (LIU) which is yet to make any arrest in this connection. As soon as a member of the gang accused of putting shunts in electricity meters is nabbed, the whole gang could be busted. It will also help us in identifying power officials involved in the illegal activity.”
Shunts are used to tamper with electricity metres in such a way that they slow down, causing revenue losses to the power department.
As per reports, 49 FIR are lodged against consumers under EUDD 1 circle while 72 are lodged against EUDD 2 circle consumers. As many as 87 FIRs are lodged against consumers in EUDD 3 circle.
Talking to TOI, SP, city, Rajeev Malhotra said, “We are trying to provide complete back up force to members of anti-theft team but every time, due to various reasonsm it is not practically possible. We are with the power department officials at every step.”