Punjab power utility — Punjab State Power Corporation limited — is tightening the noose around the culprits of power theft.
Resolving to take stern action against such outlaws, PSPCl chairman-cum-managing director (CMD) A Venu Prasad has initiated a large scale drive to check cases of theft of electricity throughout Punjab.
In compliance of the same, Chief Engineer (West Zone), Bathinda, Harkamal Singh Khurmi has got 11,834 connections checked in area falling under his jurisdiction and detected 1328 connections involving theft of energy or unauthorized load and wrong metering.
A penalty of Rs 2.5 crores has been charged to the defaulters and recovery of the amount by PSPCl is underway, said the spokesperson.
Khurmi has requested the public not to indulge in theft of energy as this is an illegal offence.
Maximum 694 cases of theft have been detected in the Muktsar distribution circle by engineer Inderjit Singh during the last 15 days and Rs 185.15 lakhs have been charged as penalty.
In Bathinda Distribution Circle, Deputy Chief Engineer Jiwan Kansal detected 265 cases, and imposed Rs 36.95 lakh fine on the defaulters. Special police stations have also been asked to register the FIR against the culprits.
In Ferozepur Circle, MPS Dhillon charged Rs 25.12 lakh as fine for 188 cases detected for theft during checking. Similarly, in Faridkot Circle, 181 theft cases have been detected and a fine of Rs 22.85 lakhs has been imposed.
Khurmi infirmed that strict instructions have been issued by the PSPCl management to prevent theft of electricity and in compliance of these instructions, various teams of West Zone are doing frequent checkings to avoid theft of electricity.
Strict action shall be taken against the defaulters and no guilty consumers shall be spared, he added.