RAWALPINDI: The district administration has chalked out a plan for starting a crackdown against electricity theft. In the first phase of the campaign, all industrial and commercial units are to be checked by the Special Branch of the police and technical staff from the Islamabad Electric Supply Company (Iesco) to determine if they are stealing electricity.

More than 71 industrial units and all commercial units will be checked in the first 10 days of the campaign. Committees have been formed at the tehsil level under the supervision of respective assistant commissioners which will start working from Wednesday.

The decision was taken in a meeting chaired by acting commissioner Umer Jehangir and attended by Additional Deputy Commissioner Finance Waqas Ahmed, assistant commissioners and representatives of Iesco and the local police.

All industrial, commercial units to be checked in first phase of campaign starting today

The meeting was told that Iesco’s line losses have increased from industrial units and commercial outlets. It was decided to check electricity theft and the Special Branch was asked to inform the administration about open theft.

The meeting was told that electricity is stolen in one of two ways. Either by connecting a wire to the main supply line or by tampering with the electricity meter.

A senior official who attended the meeting told Dawn the crackdown has been started on the directives of the Punjab government which had asked divisional and district administrations to form committees in order to address the issue of electricity theft once and for all.

He said the meeting discussed how to make the drive successful. Those attending were told that it would be more difficult to check on domestic units. The Special Branch will report such instances to the committee which will conduct a visit immediately.

Mr Jehangir directed police and district administration officials to register cases against electricity thieves without discrimination and that he will review the performance of the committees every week.

Action will be taken against officers who are found to be negligent, he added.

Iesco Superintendent Engineer Umar Farooq said 37 electricity thieves have been identified so far and that more will be identified soon.

All data will be compiled and meter tempering will not be allowed and the campaign will include keeping a check on all electricity thieves without discrimination, he said.

Published in Dawn, November 7th, 2018