Excelsior Correspondent
MENDHAR, Jan 16: Power Development Department (PDD) has failed to check the power theft, which has become rampant with the department staff actively conniving with people to promote the illegal practice.
The power theft continues unabated despite assurances from the department that the practice will be curbed.
People are resorting to hooking with impunity, which has also resulted in the shortfall of the revenue realization.
There are reports of hooking taking place in major parts of Mendhar as well as some rural pockets.
Mohammad Iqbal, Vikas Kumar and Parveen Sawhney who runs shops in Mendhar main bazaar said the power theft is taking place as the authorities are not taking action against the erring people.
“The overload often leads to damage of power transformers causing inconvenience to the locals”, they said.
“We are making all out efforts to provide regular power supply to the consumers but due to power theft, the power infrastructure remains over-burdened resulting into frequent damage to transformers”, a senior PDD official said on the condition of anonymity.
He asserted that action will be taken against the persons involved in illegal hooking of power lines viz bypassing meter readings, adding that the erring persons will be penalized as per the J&K Electricity Act, 2010 besides attracting disconnection of power supply.
Follow our WhatsApp channel
