City court attaches 21 properties in separate cases of power theft in East Delhi

Coming down heavily on people sentenced in separate cases of power theft, a special court has attached 21 properties in various parts of East Delhi, a BSES spokesperson said on Thursday.

The properties were sealed between August 21 and September 9, after the people convicted for power theft failed to pay fines, he said.

"In far-reaching separate orders, the Special Court of Electricity, Karkardooma, attached properties in Karawal Nagar, Harsh Vihar, New Usmanpur, Gokalpur, Bhajanpura, Welcome Colony, Seelampur, Khajoori Khas, GTB Enclave and other areas, in cases of power theft," the spokesperson said.

The "power thieves" were cumulatively stealing around 550 KW of electricity and penalties of around Rs 6.2 crore were levied as per guidelines, he said, adding that in 16 cases, electricity was being stolen by way of direct theft and in the remaining five cases, through metre tampering.

Though aggregate technical and commercial (AT&C) losses largely on account of power-theft have reduced by over 50 percent in Delhi, but there are pockets where it continues to be a menace, the spokesman said.

"Efforts of teams of discoms to check irregularities are often thwarted by the local miscreants. Inspection teams are stopped by unscrupulous elements from checking premises and often heckled at," he said.

Under the Electricity Act, 2003, power theft attract a penalty and imprisonment up to five years.

BRPL and BYPL, Tata Power Delhi Distribution Limited(TPDDL) are three main BSES discoms supplying electricity to the national capital. They are joint ventures involving the Delhi government.