KOCHI: Power theft has been eating into the revenue of Kerala State Electricity Board (KSEB). However, recently after the KSEB announced reward for those providing information about people stealing power, it has been able to achieve some breakthrough in the issue. But as it always happens in every case, some people use this opportunity to settle personal scores. The board, however, pointed that the though it sometimes gets such fake calls, most of the calls are genuine and they have been able to nab the culprits.
Vincent Abraham, AEE with anti-power theft squad of KSEB at Ernakulam said that before the rewards were announced, they used to get around 30 calls providing information about power thefts in a month from Ernakulam district.
“However, these days after the rewards were declared, we get at least 30 calls per day. It is true that some use this opportunity to settle personal scores, but in most cases the information is authentic. Since we are receiving a lot of information about power theft from the public, checking has been increased and a large number of cases are being detected,” he said. Though KSEB has not rewarded any of the informers yet, the paperwork regarding this will be completed soon. KSEB had promised a reward of `50,000 or five per cent of the fine amount, which is lesser, for information regarding power theft.
“The reward will be given when KSEB collects the entire amount from the person who has been stealing power. The paper work for rewarding the informants is taking place,” a KSEB official said.
Ernakulam, which is the business hub of the state is the highest electricity consuming district in Kerala.
As per available data, consumption of electricity is 1,500 million units per month by the entire state. In this, 300 million units are consumed by Ernakulam district alone, which is one fifth of the consumption of entire state. Per day, electricity consumption is 55 million units in the state and 10 million units in Ernakulam district. Ernakulam district has 21 extra high tension consumers. In the state, there are around 50 extra high tension consumers. Similarly, there are 1,156 high tension consumers and 12.38 lakhs low tension consumers. KSEB receives `35 crore as revenue from the extra high tension consumer each month in Ernakulam. Similarly, high tension consumers generate revenue of `50 crore and `83 crore from the low tension consumers in the district.
Rishi Raj Singh, chief vigilance officer of KSEB said that since electricity consumption in Ernakulam is very high, the theft cases are also high here.
“Considering this we conducted three day long special drive and collected `1.57 crore from Ernakulam district alone. Since there are several industries and commercial units operating in the district, theft cases are high here. The squads in the district have been directed to continue drive,” he said.