Sitting amid the blackened remains of his home, 32-year-old Nikesh Gawali carefully broke open a half-melted plastic box with a screwdriver. His hands shook slightly, not out of fear, but out of hope. “I’m trying to find my daughter Aarti’s gold earrings,” he said quietly, still focused on the box. “She’s just five. I got them made recently after months of labour work.” The plastic box, warped and blackened by heat, was one of the few things left from his two-room house on the outskirts of Dhamangaon village . All around him lay ash, broken tin sheets and charred wooden beams. The walls had cracked under the heat and the front room’s tin roof had caved in completely. What remained was a blackened debris all around - almost nothing to suggest a home once stood there. Nikesh earns his living as an agricultural labourer, like many in the village. Work is uncertain and depends on the season. Those earrings weren’t just jewellery - they were a small dream, a reward for his hard work,...
Published on July 4, 2017
WITH an aim to curb the menace of power pilferage and recover pending amount in power theft cases, Spanco Nagpur Discom Ltd (SNDL) has started booking those involved in power theft under Section 3 of The Prevention of Damage to Public Property Act, 1984, a non-bailable offence. Earlier, the accused used to be charged only under the Electricity Act provisions which has failed to act as a deterrent.
About 20 persons involved in power theft have been booked under the act last month and the action would be continue to create deterrence of law.
It may be mentioned that electricity meter is considered as public property among host of other electrical infrastructure publicly installed for providing services to citizens at large. The other benefit of this move is that First Investigation Report (FIR) for power theft can be filed in other police stations for early action or taken upto the court for cognizance in case of delay. A person pronounced as offender under this section is liable to receive not only fine but also be sentenced to rigorous imprisonment ranging from six months up to five years, if
found guilty.
The distribution franchisee also intends to add charges of creating hazardous circumstances against the offender for anybody who ventures near such a tampered meter and/or other infra and similarly for people who are putting direct hooks for seeking power supply.
Sources informed that the Gaddigodam police did not execute summons in the power theft cases since 2011 due to manpower crunch. Therefore, thousands of defaulters who have been assessed for power pilferage amounting to crores of rupees have not been hauled-up. Hence they are emboldened to carry out misdeeds.
When asked, Sonal Khurana, Business Head, SNDL, said that the move to book those involved in power theft under Damage to Public Property Act will create deterrence and also bring down the percentage of power theft to a great extent. Power losses are rampant and rising due to lack of deterrence inducing factors such as early service of summons which in turn delays the process further,” he said.
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