“We have taken action against 15,000-20,000 offenders since the start of the campaign,” Energy Minister Gokarna Bista, who initiated the campaign, said. NEA staffers have even taken help of police to snap electricity supply to the households using stolen power supply to stave off violent confrontations in the period. [break]
“Six-seven NEA staffers were injured when locals attacked them with spears and sticks in Panchataura Belaun of the Bara district at the start of the campaign,” Energy Secretary Balananda Poudel said. “But the government acted tough and disconnected power supply to the village and restored supply only after an all-party meeting committed to control theft. There have been no such problems and no staffer has been maltreated since then,” Poudel added.
Minister Bista said NEA has even been seizing the equipment used with stolen power during the raids to discourage further theft of electricity. “We have also warned the NEA chiefs in the field to act seriously to control theft saying their performance in the campaign will also be used for overall performance evaluation,” Minister Bista added.
Secretary Poudel said NEA has been identifying the feeders with rate of leakage higher than 40 percent and even publishing public notices in national dailies warning the locals to stop stealing power.
“We have come to know that there has been theft of up to 85 percent in some feeders. So, we have issued the notices. We will take measures like increasing load-shedding hours in those feeders, not put them in the priority list for maintenance like changing transformers, and may eventually cut off power if leakage is not controlled,” Poudel revealed.
Minister Bista said the total leakage was at 29 percent, with 15 percent attributed to technical loss and rest to theft, when he took charge of the ministry. He claimed that there has been significant improvement in the period. “We have not received data from across the country but our efforts in the Bhaktapur district have helped reduce leakage by five percent in the past one month,” Bista claimed. The recent decline in power-cuts was also attributed to control of theft, and technical loss through operational inefficiency.
The ministry expects the data from across the country in next few days and the data from Bhaktapur points that there may be significant improvement. “If we can bring down the leakage by only six percentage points, NEA will generate around Rs 2.5 billion of additional revenue, almost offsetting its annual loss,” Bista stated. The last annual report of NEA had put its net loss at Rs 5.35 billion that included Rs 3.20 billion paid in interest of long-term loans.
Secretary Poudel, however, was cautious in his optimism and said much needed to be done in controlling leakages in the industrial sector. “Big industries have been robbing NEA with connivance of NEA staffers and we have to control it to significantly bring down the leakages,” Poudel explained. “We have been monitoring such industries and action will be taken against them,” Poudel assured.
Related story
NEA to reward informants for reporting power theft
-1200x560-1779450784.webp)
