Report of Indian Institute of Public Administration ... - Ministry of Power

State Reports (Vol.-III)
Study on `Impact of Restructuring of SEBs’
trend in the number of prosecutions. The total prosecutions/compoundings during the
last three years, i.e., 2002-03 to 2004-05 were 1,772, while in 1995-96, in a single
year alone the prosecutions/compoundings were 1,861.
The figures for 2005-06 are, of course, an improvement over the previous year but it is
not certain that this trend will continue.
It appears that the Government has not encouraged vigorous raids for detecting cases
of electricity theft. DISCOMs too seem to show indifference on this front, which was
showing excellent results during the pre-restructuring period. During that time, the
most competent officers were posted in Vigilance Wing of RSEB and they were
encouraged in every way. During the later period, the DISCOMs do not seem to
pursue electricity theft cases with the vigour shown in the earlier period.
Fifteen Special Police Stations have been created especially to handle electricity theft
cases. Formerly, the regular police stations, due to a variety of reasons and pressure of
work, used to discourage filing of FIRs in electricity theft cases. Partly they were
discouraging FIRs in order to keep the crime graph in check. Now hopefully, with
separate police stations, the regular police stations would also be able to render
appropriate support without being obsessed by the crime graph figures because the
fresh cases of electricity theft would be registered in these special police stations.
In electricity theft prone areas, the DISCOMs are gradually opting for aerial bunch
cables (ABC). Though the cost of these conductors is about 50 per cent higher, they
have given good results and tapping directly from the LT lines, which was so common
earlier, has substantially reduced wherever ABC have been installed. For agricultural
consumers, meters are being installed on transformers to discourage tampering with
the meters installed on individual service connections.
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