Slums were drawing power worth Rs 2 cr

NEW DELHI: Slum-dwellers tapping on power may not be something entirely new, but the illegal consumption is only rising as NDMC officials found out when they conducted a survey of the slum clusters to ascertain what use the electricity is put to.
The stolen electricity is being used to not only run various electrical gadgets like televisions, refrigerators and air coolers, but also several small-scale industries.
According to sources, the decision to snap these illegal power connections was arrived upon after it was estimated that the civic agency was losing close to Rs 2 crore through such pilferage every month.
There are 37 slum clusters within the NDMC areas. Of these, seven are on NDMC owned land. While none of these settlements has a formal arrangement with NDMC for power distribution, all draw on electricity unauthorisedly.
"We conducted checks in these settlements and found that small-scale industries like welding units and auto-repair shops were running from them, not to mention consumption on account of household appliances. Based on the level of consumption per slum we realised that we were actually losing out crores," said a source.
The NDMC recently decided to clamp down on illegal tapping of power in NDMC areas after submitting its financial report with the DERC for the first time.
The report is due to come up for a review by month-end. Based on the financial situation reflected by the report, the regulatory body will declare new tariff rates in June.
While the NDMC has stepped up surveillance to prevent tapping of power in the seven slums on its land, the remaining 30 continue to steal electricity.
There have been demands that the civic agency install power meters to keep tabs on consumption, but senior officials say this has been ruled out by the recommendations of the committee on fire safety formed by the L-G B L Joshi.