The Anti-Power Theft Squad (APTS) of the Kerala State Electricity Board is being armed with more electronic equipment to deal with the rising number of power thefts reported among all categories of consumers in the city.
The squad will be provided with more electronic gadgets such as accu check, common meter reading instrument, and current injectors to improve detection of theft and to electronically gather evidence against those involved in theft and misuse of power connections.
Accu checkWhile an accu check could be deployed to find if the meter is recording lesser units, the common meter reading instrument would help gather data from the meter and use it as evidence against violators in the special courts dealing with power theft cases.
The current injector is a high-tech equipment to check theft among industrial consumers, an official with APTS told The Hindu .
“We have already started procuring the equipment,” he added.
In the last eight months, the squad had detected 56 theft cases and around 60 other irregularities in the city.
In the last month alone, 12 theft cases and 23 instances of power misuse were reported.
The cases were detected during 1,888 raids, of which 350 of them were conducted based on specific complaints and the remaining as per inputs gathered by local staff of the Kerala State Electricity Board.
Among those caught for violations include a hotelier, a person who retired from a senior KSEB post, and a doctor at the Government Medical College and Hospital.
A sum of around Rs.2 crore was collected as penalty, the official said.
Role of electriciansAn interesting find during the power theft, the official said, was the role of electricians in helping the consumer tamper meters and get illegal connections.
The electricians would collect a regular sum from such consumers, and when they stopped payment, would turn informants, said another official.
Wary of trapsThe consumers should be wary of such traps as they end up paying more as fine than the short-term gains, the official added.
