Rajkot: The public sector power distribution company, Paschim Gujarat Vij Company Ltd (PGVCL), which supplies electricity in Saurashtra and Kutch districts suffers annual loss of Rs 1,400 crore owing to power theft. s
Managing director of PGVCL, VJ Baranwal shot a letter to 66 MLAs and MPs containing details of feeders in their respective areas where power consumption is more then expected. The letter sought the public representatives’ help in reducing this unfair practice.
The company has started aggressive vigilance drive and detected 29,506 cases of electricity theft in the last three months and found theft worth Rs 64.14 crore in industrial, commercial, residential and agriculture connections.
Talking to TOI, Baranwal said, “I did not post the letter to these public representatives but sent one senior person of the respective area to personally meet them and hand over my letter. The letter explains how, in spite of being a public sector company, we have to bear our own expenditures and sought their help in convincing the people not to indulge in electricity theft.”
According to sources, generally when the PGVCL staff detect power theft in agriculture connections, they often get attacked or it starts a clash. Consumers refuse to pay penalty and take illegal connections. In such cases, the discom expects local MLAs and MPs’ support to convince the errant customers. Similar is the case with industrial connections too in rural areas.
The PGVCL letter which gives statistical details of its expenditure and management states, “PGVCL gets payment for 84 out of 100 units it sells and for that, except for a few technical reasons, theft of power is a major responsible factor.”
The letter states that if the PGVCL gets the deficit amount it can make its distribution network better, provide better facilities to its consumers, reduce transformer faults and also reduce tariff.
Managing director of PGVCL, VJ Baranwal shot a letter to 66 MLAs and MPs containing details of feeders in their respective areas where power consumption is more then expected. The letter sought the public representatives’ help in reducing this unfair practice.
The company has started aggressive vigilance drive and detected 29,506 cases of electricity theft in the last three months and found theft worth Rs 64.14 crore in industrial, commercial, residential and agriculture connections.
Talking to TOI, Baranwal said, “I did not post the letter to these public representatives but sent one senior person of the respective area to personally meet them and hand over my letter. The letter explains how, in spite of being a public sector company, we have to bear our own expenditures and sought their help in convincing the people not to indulge in electricity theft.”
According to sources, generally when the PGVCL staff detect power theft in agriculture connections, they often get attacked or it starts a clash. Consumers refuse to pay penalty and take illegal connections. In such cases, the discom expects local MLAs and MPs’ support to convince the errant customers. Similar is the case with industrial connections too in rural areas.
The PGVCL letter which gives statistical details of its expenditure and management states, “PGVCL gets payment for 84 out of 100 units it sells and for that, except for a few technical reasons, theft of power is a major responsible factor.”
The letter states that if the PGVCL gets the deficit amount it can make its distribution network better, provide better facilities to its consumers, reduce transformer faults and also reduce tariff.
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