BHUBANESWAR: The Central Electricity Supply Utility (CESU) has given cash reward of Rs 28,400 to 10 persons for reporting power theft cases while keeping their identity a secret. These whistleblowers were given the cash reward, which is 10 per cent of the penalty realised from the offenders, at CESU head office here on Saturday. This was in response to the appeal by CESU seeking public cooperation for providing information regarding power pilferage.
These persons had informed about such incident in their respective localities. Basing on the information received from the whistleblowers, raids were conducted and penal action was taken against offenders. An amount of Rs 2,84,203 was recovered as penalty from these defaulting customers in Bhubaneswar, Cuttack, Dhenkanal, Kendrapara and Nayagarh, said CESU PRO Golakh Sahu. Five metre tampering/bypassing and six hooking cases were detected during raids.
The electricity utility is incurring huge losses due to high transmission and distribution losses which are more than the national average. To counter this problem, the utility announced the scheme last month to reward the informers. Under this scheme, 10 per cent of the final amount realised from the defaulting consumers is given to the informers keeping his/her identity secret.
The aggregated technical and commercial (AT&C) loss of the power utility is as high as 30 per cent while the national average is 22 per cent.The power distribution company has provided a dedicated mobile number-9437158670 with a request to send message regarding power theft through SMS and WhatsApp.
SHGs to assist CESU
In a bid to regularise unauthorised connection in slum areas of the city and improve revenue collection, CESU has roped in women SHGs to assist the company. The SHGs will help the company in billing, collection, grievance redressal and curbing power theft. The pilot project will cover four slums, Kedarpalli, Masjid Colony, Abhiram Nagar and Mandap Sahi. It is a joint initiative of Humara Bachpan Trust and CESU.