Southern States - Tamil Nadu-Chennai   

4 held for stealing power to illuminate cutouts

By S.Shivakumar

CHENNAI FEB. 19. Four persons were arrested today on charges of stealing electricity for the decorations and illuminating cutouts installed in connection with a DMK public meeting at Chintadripet on Tuesday. A hunt is on for a DMK local functionary in this connection.

The police identifed four arrested persons arrested in connection with the alleged power theft as Karthikeyan, Samuel, Thangaraj and Kumar of Karthikeyan electrical works in Otteri.

The police action followed a complaint from a TNEB junior engineer that they had stolen electricity which was an offence under 39 (1) of Indian Electricity Act.

The move by the TNEB is being hailed as significant as it is common for political parties to draw electricity clandestinely for public meetings and celebrations, to illuminate cutouts, arches and special bulbs.

For the DMK public meeting a series of cutouts of the party leaders illuminated by serial lights and several tubelights along Anna Salai from Periyar Statue towards South, had been installed. The TNEB junior engineer charged that they had not sought permission for taking the electricity.

Political parties adopt a crude method to draw power clandestinely - a wire is drawn from a TNEB junction box and it is further tapped using stationery pins stuck to it. The pins then link up to naked wires, for each tubelight.

Apart from power theft, this system also creates a serious public risk, in terms of safety. No official agency interferes with the actions of the parties, which violate several laws though such work is carried out by lower level functionaries. Senior leaders deny knowledge of such methods, and claim that they only use use generators.

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