The Konkan regional office of the Maharashtra Electricity Distribution Company Ltd detected 1,949 cases of power theft during a special drive that was carried out this month across five zonal offices: Nashik, Kalyan, Bhandup, Jalgaon and Ratnagiri.
The highest number of cases, 898, was from the Kalyan zone. That was followed by the 579 cases in Nashik and the 381 in Jalgaon.
“There are 15 districts under these five zonal offices. Several teams were formed by each of these zonal offices to carry out the raids,” an MSEDCL official said. The official added that the raids were supervised by the chief engineers of the respective zones.
Both Nashik and Ahmednagar districts come under the jurisdiction of the Nashik zone of the MSEDCL.
Ankush Nale, the Konkan regional director of the power utility, had ordered the special drive after a review of the zones’ performance. Nale had taken charge as regional director in the first week of December.
“During the review meeting, Nale found that the five zones had high distribution losses. Such losses are mainly due to power theft,” the MSEDCL official said.
Sources from the power utility said electricity meters had been tampered with in many of the cases.
About 43% of MSEDCL’s statewide revenue comes from just these five zones. Barring Mumbai, the MSEDCL remains the principal distribution company supplying electricity to consumers.
“Currently, we are assessing the quantum of financial losses that the MSEDCL incurred due to this theft. We will be sending notices to each of these offenders. They will have to pay or face legal action,” an official added.
The special drive, officials said, is set to continue in the five zones. Nale has also directed the zonal offices to focus on improving existing infrastructure and provide new connections.
