Exclusive police stations for power thieves

The Assam government will set up 20 police stations across the state by January next year to check rampant power theft even as the administration is determined to introduce digital meters which had evoked protests earlier.

The new police stations would only monitor and stop power theft, which led to an overall loss of Rs 55 crore to the Assam State Electricity Board, Power Minister Pradyut Bordoloi said today.

The Cabinet had already approved setting up of the new police stations, he said.

The introduction of the new digital meters has evoked protests from power consumers, consumer fora and some political parties claiming they were faulty. However, Bordoloi said the new meters were tamper- proof and accurate.

"Unlike the existing electro-magnetic meters, digital meters are very sensitive and can record from very low to very high consumption accurately," he said.

To emphasise the credibility of digital meters, Bordoloi said both domestic and commercial meters carried BIS (Bureau of Indian Standards) certification.

The decision to introduce digital meters was a part of the energy auditing system introduced by the state electricity board in 2004 to reduce the overall technical, distribution and commercial loss of Rs 55 crore. Bordoloi said the government would have to go ahead with it.

In view of the widespread complaints about the digital meters being faulty, the government had urged the Central Power Research Institute in Bangalore, under the Union power ministry, to test the meters randomly.

Bordoloi also blamed a section of the state electricity board employees with vested interests for being involved in the anti-digital meter campaign, and had instructed the board authorities to take appropriate action against them.