LUCKNOW: The enforcement wing of Uttar Pradesh Power Corporation Limited (UPPCL) is playing a perfect foil to energy minister Shrikant Sharma, who launched consumer-friendly schemes to augment revenue, and has realised nearly Rs 47 crore from power theft culprits by disposing off just 12.28% of the total FIRs lodged in 2020.
“It is a major achievement and shows that the decision of setting up special anti-power theft police stations has worked and is paying dividends,” director general, vigilance, UPPCL, Kamal Saxena, told TOI.
“We realised Rs 47 crore by disposing off just 12.28% of total cases and are awaiting assessment reports from the SDOs concerned in remaining 88%. If we dispose of all the cases, our recovery would climb to Rs 402 crore,” he added.
The anti-power theft police stations that became fully functional in 2020 proved to be a game changer and have succeeded in curbing the ‘katia’ culture and creating fear among offenders that they would have to face action for power theft.
Earlier, chargesheets were filed in most cases, but now the stress is on recovery.
In 2017, chargesheets were filed in 67.23% cases, but after dedicated police stations started working, chargesheets were filed in just 4.35% of total FIRs in 2020 as focus shifted to realizing penalty and dues rather than fighting cases in the court for years, said Saxena.
The DG Vigilance has submitted a report to energy minister and Union government on the impact analysis of creating anti-power theft police stations in UP where cases of power theft were registered at local police stations and gathered dust.
The impact analysis report states that 1,76,007 cases of power theft were registered in 2020 and Rs 47.52 crore has been realised from disposed of 12.28% cases.
Before dedicated anti-power theft police stations were set up, the situation was just reverse as over 68% went into litigation and revenue was realised in 31% only.
The fact that now we have a dedicated staff on ground to tackle power theft, lodge cases, pursue them diligently has helped a lot in curbing the notorious ‘katia’ (illegal connection) practice and has curtailed transmission and distribution losses, said the IPS officer.
The vigilance department is sincerely pursuing over 1. 50 lakh pending cases and asking substations concerned to send the assessment report soon.
Once a complaint is registered, the theft of power is assessed by the local SDO who files an assessment report on which the enforcement wing takes further action.
“If we get the assessment reports from SDOs in time, I am confident of recovering around Rs 387 crore more from the offenders,” Saxena said.