Rs 665 cr collected as fine from power defaulters in Hry

The vigilance wing of the Haryana Power Department has recovered a record Rs 665 crore through the fine imposed on bill defaulters, some of whom also indulged in theft of electricity, during the 2017-18 fiscal.

Over 95,000 cases of electricity theft were reported during the financial year 2017-18. In 2018, till May 2,24,678 cases of electricity theft have been detected by the team.

Director of the Vigilance Wing K K Sharma congratulated the vigilance team and the officials of Power Utilities on this achievement.

The SP of the vigilance wing, Balwan Singh Rana, said theft of electricity is also a major crime and a hindrance to the progress of the state, which is why a special campaign was launched last year for its prevention.

With the support of the people of the state, maximum cases of electricity theft were reported as compared to all the previous years, he said.

"With the joint efforts of the vigilance team and the officials of the power utilities, over Rs 337 crore was recovered as penalty on electricity thefts, Rs 275 crore was recovered as default amount from disconnected consumers, and Rs 53 crore under special drive in Gurugram and Bahadurgarh," Rana was quoted as saying in an official release.

An official spokesperson said crackdown on power thefts has resulted into the increase of revenue also and in a way benefitted the consumers who got uninterrupted and qualitative power supply.