Specific courts to try power theft cases

KOLKATA: In a much-awaited development in the state's power sector, the Calcutta high court has given the green signal to the West Bengal government to identify specific courts to deal with cases relating to power theft. We have received the green signal from the high court. The judicial department will soon begin the process of identifying some of the existing courts to deal with power theft cases, a senior power department official said on Tuesday.The development comes as a great relief to the power utilities in the state, especially those in the distribution sector. The provision of setting up special courts to deal exclusively with power theft was a prominent part of the Indian Electricity Bill (West Bengal Amendment) Act, 2001, which was designed to deal with the huge amount of power theft in the state. Armed with the new law, power utilities, especially CESC Ltd and the West Bengal State Electricity Board, had intensified their raids to curb power theft. According to available figures, CESC had managed to remove 37,562 hookings and disconnect 9,502 meters for power theft. In the process, 5,398 FIRs were lodged with the police, causing 636 persons to be arrested. In case of the WBSEB, 1,62,227 hookings were removed, a total of 1,560 FIRs were lodged with the police, resulting in 350 arrests. However, the lack of a supportive judicial system had rendered such impressive figures meaningless. Since the law came into force on July 15 last year, there has not yet been a single conviction in all these cases being lodged. Unless it is a major offence, courts always give bail to person after five to seven days in custody. After that, it falls into the regular judicial process, CESC executive director (corporate development) Shantanu Chatterjee said. This process is subject to the usual delays that is customary of the judicial system. Since these persons see that ultimately they are not being penalised for their offence, the propensity to steal comes up again, a senior WBSEB official said. A significant area of theft are the tanneries at Tangra.