Early Times Report
Jammu, Aug 26: Flourishing nexus between dishonest consumers and black sheep amongst the department has failed PDD miserably from achieving targets of power revenue it set for itself.
The meter readers and linemen of the Power Development Department are helping the people in power theft in the Winter Capital of the state.
According to the sources, some meter readers and linemen themselves sell ideas of power theft and fix per month commission with the customers. The customers, who pay Rs.800 to 1500 per month, easily accept the proposal of the meter reader, who with the help of linemen prune their power bills substantially and pay Rs.200 to Rs.500 per month as commission to linemen and meter readers.
The meter reader not only assists in power theft but also alarms the customers at the time of raid/checking with loyalty. The extent of nexus can be measured from the fact that a few Meter Readers were managing their posting at one place since years serving their vested interests and incurring revenue loss to the Government. Even the transfers fail to break the nexus between consumers and meter readers, as the meter reader of a particular area instructs the new meter reader about the settlement done with the consumers, and the new meter reader honours the unholy contract.
Gurbachan Singh, Superintending Engineer PDD accepting the nexus between some Consumers and Meter readers said, "We are trying our best to control power theft and if some case of nexus come in notice, we will lodge a FIR against both, the consumer and meter reader."
"To break this nexus we have also started reshuffling of meter readers, but they might be continuing the theft. We are vigilantly checking and raiding the localities to control the power theft," he added. It is pertinent to mention here that the State Government is losing hundreds of crores of rupees per year as power theft and transmission losses. In the year 2011-12, the department lost Rs 1900 crore, which increased to Rs 2100 crores during the last financial year. |
