Imkong Walling
It is no secret the Department of Power, Nagaland (DoPN) is losing revenue in terms of hundreds of crores annually. It is also known how and why the DoPN is incurring the losses.
It is as well known the Department has and is trying to take measures to curb pilferage and narrow the ever widening revenue-spending gap. The latest such move, with special focus on Dimapur district, came in the shape of a ‘Special Team’ headed by a senior bureaucrat in the rank of Additional Secretary. The implied emphasis on Dimapur being over the fact that the district has a track record of consuming half of the state’s entire quota of electricity while consistently failing to pay for what its residents consume.
The Team, as described by the Principal Secretary of the DoPN, would study ways and means to control power theft and improving revenue collection. It is also required to make field visits to Dimapur and it would not be wrong to assume that the August 27 ‘Sensitisation Programme’ in Dimapur was the first of many to come.
The intent and objective of the move is apparent but the bigger question is about carrying on as others that have come before were, at best, half-hearted.
Some 8 years back, the DoPN had launched an Anti-power Theft Mobile Squad with police assistance. As the name would imply, it was designed to crack down on electricity theft, only that, it was forgotten not long after it was instituted.
Prior to this, there was a short-lived Special Task Force comprising of officials from the police, administration and the DoPN, which also sputtered to a halt following an initial flurry of activity.
As admitted by the department, the reasons/causes for the huge revenue loss, is evident to all or atleast to the people familiar with the electricity business. The more important thing missing though is, will, governmental will to act and plug the known loopholes, including the illegal exchange of favours between the consumers and the Department personnel. For instance, running ACs and water pumps by bypassing the meter ‘hand in glove’ and writing off arrears under the table and so on. There is also the unspoken issue of dead meters that display nil consumption but about which the consumer won't complain and the meter reader won't either.
The Department cannot forever continue to resort to using generic terms and putting blame on governmental apathy and decaying infrastructure alone. It has also got to admit to the malpractices within that has become the norm and make honest effort to root them out.
Furthermore, even as the government promotes a transition to pre-paid mode, consumers have already found ways to run electrical appliances without having to route the line through the meter.
To what extent the Department is willing to go to plug the known loopholes?
The writer is a Principal Correspondent at The Morung Express. Comments can be sent to imkongwalls@gmail.com
