Churches asked to reign in rampant power theft
Al Ngullie
August 28
DIMAPUR, (MExN): It is learnt that Nagaland is the only State in the country with the highest percentage of commercial loss incurred in the power and electricity sector.
According to latest information, the Government of Nagaland spends about Rs.73 Crores approximately in purchasing electricity. On the other hand, the State, incurs a gross loss of about Rs. 35 Crores yearly due to rampant power theft by unscrupulous citizens.
As against the normal commercial loss percentage permissible which is between 15% and 20%, the power sector in Nagaland incurs an annual commercial loss in excess of about 30%. Total losses account for about 58%. According to latest statistical figures which could be procured by The Morung Express, the State Government spends about Rs. 73 Crores purchasing power directly from the National Grid of which only about Rs. 34 Crores are received in terms of revenue (average) while a loss in excess of Rs. 35 Crores are incurred by the State due to power thefts as mentioned.
According to Secretary Talitemjen Toy, the losses were due to rampant power theft by consumers who lift electricity without being aware that power theft was against the law and a punishable offence. “Part of the problem can be attributed to poor grid capacities. However the losses are due to overloaded transformers as a result of direct hooking from the distribution lines” said the Secretary. He was of the view that consumers were pilfering power without being aware of the legal as well as commercial implications involved.
Another top Government functionary while blaming “blundering power consumers” for the extreme percentage of commercial loss said that the Government was spending much in procuring power tonnage but receiving only insubstantial returns due to widespread power pilfering, putting pressure on power supply for which genuine power consumers suffer.
A source from the Government said that the State presently required about 75 Megawatts to facilitate sufficient power supply to genuine consumers.
The official informed that the State currently was “depending” on about 55 to 60 Megawatts which had also turned out to be insufficient since “almost 66% of the population in Nagaland was stealing power supply from the wires and electricity posts.”
Meanwhile, in the face of the huge losses being incurred in the power sector due to reckless misuse of electricity, Talitemjen Toy, Secretary, Power has issued circulars to all the Churches in Nagaland seeking assistance in conveying to people the message of utilizing electricity responsibly as well as containing the problem of power theft.
The circular appealed for responsible use of electricity keeping in mind the huge sums the Government had to spend while the revenue earned were far below expectations which was primarily due to theft. It warned that if such trends continued a time may come when the Government would not be in a position to purchase adequate power to meet the electricity-requirement of the State.
It also cautioned the people to be aware that theft of electricity takes place either in forms of direct tapping from the distribution lines or through tampering of energy meters. “Both are crimes in the eyes of the law and it is the duty of every citizen to prevent such crimes” stated the circular issued to the Churches by the government.
The circular stated that since electricity had become a scarce resource, it was the responsibility of all the citizens to conserve it as well as prevent its theft. It pointed out that the capacity of transformers in the Village/colony/ward is decided on the basis of the number of genuine consumers in the categorized Village/colony/ward area. So in the case of illegal consumers outnumbering genuine consumers, the designated transformers get overloaded.
“When this happens, it deprives of our good citizens the facilities and privileges provided by the Government”, it stated while earnestly appealing to the respective Churches to convey this message to the people so that awareness regarding the matter is created.
