While conserving resources is vital, it is also important to ensure that down the delivery line, no theft or siphoning happens. This is all the more important when it comes to precious resources like water and power.
While the replacement of mechanical meters with digital meters has helped in bringing down electricity theft in the past one year, the enforcement teams deployed by the Tamil Nadu Generation and Distribution Corporation (Tangedco) all over the State have also had an impact on pilferage.
A senior Tangedco official said that data from the performance of the enforcement teams over the past three years indicates that electricity theft has come down, both in terms of the number of consumers as well as the amount involved. The penalty consists of extra levy and compounding charges, a fee consumers have to pay to avoid criminal charges.
The amount collected from penalties on electricity theft was Rs. 18.52 crore in 2015-16 and the number of energy thefts detected was 11,652 from a total of 4,53,426 meters inspected, whereas in 2014-15, the charges for electricity theft amounted to Rs. 22.83 crore from 14,699 consumers.
The total number of services inspected in 2014-15 was 4,00,133. In 2013-14, the amount of levy collected from power theft stood at Rs. 23.61 crore, against 14,807 consumers. The total services inspected were 3,49,156.
The Tangedco official said though energy theft had come down in terms of value, mainly because of upgrading to digital meters, a section of domestic commuters continue to siphon off electricity by hooks, misuse of electricity tariff and usage of electricity for purposes other than for which it was permitted. There are also cases were people have been illegally drawing electricity despite having their services disconnected.
The Tangedco's enforcement department comprises four squads – Ex-servicemen squads comprising 40 teams, a flying squad, enforcement squads comprising 17 teams and an Intelligence Wing. All the squads consist of at least six officials.
The Intelligence Wing specialises in detecting electricity theft by checking the consumption pattern of consumers in random, the official added.
Drinking water challenge
Despite the decline in the demand for mobile water supply over the past six months, unaccounted tanker trips continue, mainly in filling points such as Valluvar Kottam, MRC Nagar, Kilpauk and Ekkaduthangal.
At present, nearly 3,900 tanker trips are operated daily.
Metrowater lorry operators said an additional 10 per cent are being operated to illegally supply water without bills and jumping the queue at the water distribution points.
This is mainly because many lorry drivers are idle after the five or six trips allotted to them daily. After 2 p.m., many of them illegally transport water. Unless the number of vehicles allotted is reduced according to the demand, this practice cannot be curbed, they said.
Vehicle monitoring
Moreover, the ambitious vehicle monitoring system using GPS does not seem to have helped much in sorting out the problem. According to sources in Chennai Metrowater, the process of fixing of GPS equipment and monitoring could not be expanded to all tankers due to operational problems.
Moreover, flow meters fixed to measure volume of water filled in distribution points are not being monitored in many places due to lack of manpower.
However, squads formed at each area level go on surprise checks at least once in a month to check if tankers are making unaccounted trips. Officials said they were also disconnecting water connections from which water was found to be drawn illegally through motor pumps.
On an average, 300 such unauthorised connections are identified every year. “We disconnect for three months and allow them to apply for reconnection. While domestic consumers have to pay Rs.10,000 as penalty, commercial establishments are levied a fine of Rs.20,000,” an official said.
