Hyderabad division bench of the High Court comprising chief justice PC Ghose and justice Vilas V Afzulpurkar on Monday admitted a writ petition complaining of inaction by Discoms for their failure to prevent power pilferage.
Petitioner EA Punna Rao, a 73-year-old Vijayawada-based chartered accountant, moved the court complaining that the authorities had failed to curb the losses incurred on account of power theft and non-billing. He contended that the billing was always around 50 percent. He said that if the power theft was avoided the authorities can avoid two hours power cuts in the city. He alleged that among the various Discoms the southern region (covering the old city) was the worst and yet the government was doing nothing about it. He also alleged that though the amount collected as fines was about Rs.6.24 lakh the amount actually due was a whopping Rs 243 crore.