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Power thefts: posh areas to be targeted

By Our Staff Reporter

NEW DELHI JULY 1. The BSES and Tata Power which took over the power distribution network from the Delhi Vidyut Board today have as a matter of policy decided to target the posh colonies and industrial areas and not the slum clusters to check massive pilferage of electricity in the Capital.

``We will focus on posh colonies, guesthouses and industrial units rather than slums and resettlement colonies,'' said senior BSES and Tata Power officials.

Referring to the data collected by the DVB and the internal survey carried out by them, the officials said these indicated that the volume of power theft was much more in the up-market colonies rather than in the lower and middle class colonies. In fact, power theft in one posh house equals 500 houses in resettlement colonies.

``Instead of catching 500 people and trying to create a law and order problem, it is easier to catch one person. Further, it also becomes a prestige issue for them,'' officials said, pointing to power thefts being done by these houses. Though the residents of these colonies declare that they use only one air-conditioner, but they at times have been found using four to five. "This overloads the system and deprives others of powers. These things will be checked now,'' they said.

Quoting DVB figures, the officials said of the 546 power theft cases reported in March this year, 109 were in the posh colonies. They in fact constitute 53 per cent of the total power theft in the Capital. "Similarly in September last year, residents of posh colonies were involved in as much as 75 per cent of the total power thefts in the Capital,'' officials said.

Top officials of BSES and Tata Power argued that there was no point in catching small fries with their limited resources. "It is better to change the strategy and target the big sharks, which is bound to give us better results,'' they said.

Besides, transmission and distribution loss, power theft is considered as a major drawback of the power sector in the Delhi, which together add up to more than 50 per cent.

At the same time these officers asserted that honest consumers would not be harassed by them.

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