Over 18% industries, commercial establishments found stealing electricity: Haryana power ministry

Six massive raids were conducted in which 1.27 lakh electricity connections were checked and nearly 23,000 were caught for power theft, said officials. A total fine of Rs 84 crore has been imposed on those found guilty till now, said officials.

After a green signal from Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar, Power Minister Ranjit Singh Chautala ordered the first such raid in February 2021. As many as 236 teams were involved in checking 7,710 connections in two days and they detected power theft in 2,735, a whopping 35 per cent of the raided connections.

A penalty of Rs 10 crore was imposed on those found indulged in the electricity theft. When a similar exercise was done by 507 teams in July 2021 for two days, over 30,000 electricity metres were checked and theft was found in over 6,000. A penalty of Rs 25 crore was imposed on those found stealing electricity then.

In the latest action, on July 15, 495 teams raided 19,789 industries and commercial establishments and found theft at 3,005 places.

With such raids becoming more frequent, the percentage of industries found to be stealing electricity among the total inspected has come down from 35 per cent in February 2021 to 15 per cent this month.

Chautala told The Indian Express Monday: “Such exercise never took place in Haryana earlier. I don’t think in other states too such an action was taken in a coordinated manner. With such exercise, the officials have to remain careful. It increases revenue apart from improving the power supply. The economy of the state is mainly dependent on power and irrigation. Power is more important because the growth in the industrial sector will take place only with power supply.”

Industries, hotels, malls, guest houses, hospitals, institutions, brick kilns, colleges and schools are inspected under this exercise.

The series of raids happened after Chautala got the feedback that industries and big commercial establishments were the big contributors to electricity theft. To send across the message that “big players won’t be spared” the first raid as part of the series was conducted in February 2021. Apart from Chautala, CM Khattar and additional chief secretary P K Das were aware of the exact timings of the raids, said officials.

Sources said the minister wanted the raids to be conducted in a way teams of the Enforcement Directorate and Income Tax carry out raids at several places simultaneously.

In November 2021, Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, while chairing a high-level meeting with chief ministers and finance ministers, lauded the revolutionary steps taken by the. Haryana government to reduce power losses.

She had also said that the secretary of the central power department would be asked to study Haryana’s model to get a better understanding of the blueprint.