MSEDCL finds over 1,000 cases of power thefts in Pune Division

MSEDCL has been conducting dedicated drives to detect power thefts in Pune Division, comprising Pune, Solapur, Kolhapur, Satara and Sangli districts. In four such drives conducted over the last four months, MSEDCL officials have detected 6,428 cases of power theft of equivalent billable consumption of Rs 7.7 crore.

Power utility officials said that Pune Division has been conducting drives every month, during which MSEDCL engineers make concerted efforts to detect power thefts being done through illegal connections using hooks or cables. In the drive that concluded recently, as many as 12,140 power connections from domestic, commercial, industrial and agricultural categories were checked. Theft was detected in 1,145 cases, in which 14,60,580 units equivalent of Rs 2.07 crore were illegally used.

An official said that illegal power connections taken using hooks and cables pose a grave risk to the user’s household as well as to his neighbours. MSEDCL has appealed to citizens to avoid using illegal power connections and report to authorities if they come across any case of power theft.

The MSEDCL has also said that it will continue to take action against consumers who have defaulted on payments for a long time.

Since February last year, MSEDCL has undertaken a drive to recover unpaid power bills from its domestic, commercial and industrial consumers.

The agency has also started cutting the power connections of consumers who have not paid bills for several months. At the time of starting the drive, there were 27.11 lakh consumers in the five districts under Pune region who owed the MSEDCL a total of Rs 1,771 crore.