Police stations against power theft in UP to start functioning

As many as 75 new police stations, which will deal exclusively with cases of power theft in Uttar Pradesh, will start functioning soon, state's Power Minister Shrikant Sharma said here today.
Sharma told reporters here that the proposal, which he had floated earlier, has been finalised and policemen will be put on deputation with the power department to man these police stations and act swiftly against those accused of stealing power.
The transmission and distribution losses in the India's most-populated state are a whopping 38 per cent, he said, adding the Yogi Aditynanath government is working overtime to bring the rate down and improve compliance from consumers.

The losses go up to even as high as 78 per cent in some places, he said.
Sources claimed the problem of power theft is more acute in the areas which have been stronghold of major leaders of Samajwadi Party. The SP was in power before the BJP won the state's assembly poll with a massive majority.
The government has also plans to supply power to over 60,000 unelectrified primary schools in the state by 2019, Sharma said, adding the state has a total of 1.59 lakh primary schools.
He said the BJP government, which had taken over in March, has brought electricity to 26,000 small helmets. There were 90,000 such habitations and they would be electrified by 2018, he claimed.