New Delhi, 16 December 2005:

Press Release

BSES detects electricity theft of 1780 kilowatts; worth Rs 2.78 crore

FIR lodged at Tilak Nagar Police Station

• 15 Delhi Police personnel join BSES Enforcement Team
• Drive against power theft intensified

Determined in its endeavor to eradicate the menace of electricity theft in the national capital, BSES has – in cooperation with the Delhi Police – intensified its enforcement drive against power thieves. Last three days alone have seen the BSES enforcement teams, in two separate operations; detect theft worth a whooping 1780 Kilowatts (KW) which in revenue terms is worth Rs 2.78 crore. An FIR was subsequently lodged with the Tilak Nagar police station.

In a well planned and executed operation on December 15, a BRPL Enforcement Team, led by Sanjay Kumar, and 15 Delhi Police personnel from Tilak Nagar Police Station, raided a couple of industrial units housed in a three-storey building - RZ 225 and 231 Ravi Nagar Extension, Vishu Garden – and caught the culprits red handed while indulging in power theft of a whopping 280 KW.

The owners, Amarjeet Singh and Ashok, of the above buildings were running many industrial units including an enamel plant, a welding unit, a steel fabrication unit, a jean washing unit, a PVC extruders plant for making plastic pellets and a “saunf” sugar coating factory. All the units were stealing electricity by tapping directly from the nearby BRPL LV mains. The total load required to operate the installed machinery was assessed at 280 KW; which in revenue terms amounts to Rs 1.10 crores.

Following the successful raid, the enforcement team seized huge quantities of wires used for stealing electricity. These included nearly 300 meters of wires, mainly Teflon of various capacities. Apart from the wires, four private meters, kits and a large number of switches were also seized.

In the second case, a BYPL Enforcement Team launched a massive and successful drive in East Delhi by removing over 2000 illegal tapping (hooking). The drive was carried out in power theft prone areas including Ajeet Nagar (JJ Cluster), Ahata Karamchand (Commercial), Seelampur Gali No. I (Industrial) and some areas of Old Seelampur.

These over 2000 illegal tapping were drawing 1500 KW (1.5 MW) of electricity from the main Low-tension (LT) line, a BSES spokesperson said, while adding: “By removing these illegal tapping, BSES has saved about 4,95,000 units per month of electricity for the people of Delhi.” Besides, it results in checking theft worth Rs 1.78 crores on an annual basis.

Forty illegal and unauthorized factories were tapping power through means of hooking from the HT line causing trouble to the nearby residential areas. The officials seized 419 kilograms of wires from the site.

Commenting on the success of the raids, Mr Lalit Jalan, Director & Member Executive Committee, BSES, said: “Our success has been largely due to the active support of the Delhi Police and the honest consumers of these areas. I say this because our enforcement team often gets abused and manhandled by power thieves.” He further said that both BRPL and BYPL have constituted special squads, which are conducting massive raids all over its licensed area, to check power theft.

Mr Jalan said that “BSES is committed to all its honest consumers and is determined to achieve optimum efficiency so that power theft is eradicated and honest consumers do not end up paying for the sins of others.” BSES calls upon its honest consumers to actively come forward, with even more vigor and report power theft on our Centralized enforcement number 39999777”

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