The vigilance wing of Haryana Power Department has set a new record of collecting Rs 666 crore through the fine imposed on the defaulters indulged in theft of electricity during the year 2017-18.
SP, vigilance wing, Balwan Singh Rana on Friday said that theft of electricity is a major crime like other crimes and a hindrance in the progress of the state. Thus, a special campaign was launched last year for the prevention of this crime, he said.
Resultantly with the support of the people of the state, maximum cases of electricity theft were reported as compared to all the previous years, said he.
Director, vigilance wing, KK Sharma has congratulated the vigilance team and the officials of Power Utilities on this achievement.
With the joint efforts of the vigilance team and the officials of the power utilities, over Rs 337 crore was recovered under penalty on electricity thefts and Rs 275 crore was recovered as default amount from disconnected consumers, and Rs 53 crore under special drive in Gurigram and Bahadurgarh.
While taking action against the culprits, over 95000 cases of electricity theft were reported during the financial year 2017. And in the year 2018, till May, 224678 cases of electricity theft have been detected by the team, said Balwan Singh Rana.
The control on power thefts has resulted into the increase of revenue also and in way benefitted the consumers by supplying them uninterrupted and qualitative power supply, said an official of power utilities.
He appealed the consumers of the state to inform the vigilance wing or the power corporations or on toll free number 18001801011 or 1912 on any working day from 9am to 5 pm if they find any theft of electricity in their neighborhood and they would be rewarded for this without disclosing their identity.