Probe into power theft begins

Statesman News Service

MALDA, June 26: Senior officials of the West Bengal State Electricity Board, Malda, have started an inquiry into allegations of power theft against some WBSEB workers here. It has been alleged that a group of Intuc-backed WBSEB workers is involved in the power theft racket, as a result of which the WBSEB has been incurring huge financial losses for the past few years. The divisional engineer of WBSEB, Malda, Mr AK Ghosh, said: “We have completed the spot inquiry in four places after receiving the complaints.” To stop the power theft, WBSEB officials have formed a vigilance team for monitoring the areas, besides formulating policies to curb the menace. WBSEB officials provided meters to many consumers who run their business on the pavements of PWD land. Officially, no one is entitled to a meter without having a permanent building or a plot. But the SEB officials had to provide a meter to them just to collect revenue when they started to avail of power illegally. A senior engineer said the present system is critical and it would be difficult to provide a power connection and a meter in a simple manner. Sources said WBSEB workers backed the consumers for illegal power use. So no one complained against them. It was reportedly found that a domestic building had been converted into a multi-storeyed hotel at 320 More here, but the electricity bill is still being issued in the name of the old owner of the house. As a result, the present hotel owner can easily evade Rs 1 lakh a month, by paying just Rs 30,200 as security deposit to the WBSEB. Similarly, the accused WBSEB workers had showed that another leading hotel consumes 3.7 KW of electricity, whereas the hotel actually consumes 20 KW of electricity. A meter, earlier in the name of an ice factory owner, was transferred illegally in the name of a nursing home owner at Hyderpur in English Bazaar town. The ice factory owner had died a few years back. There are plenty of instances where WBSEB workers were found to be hand in glove with illegal consumers. Mr Ghosh said: “There are some procedural mistakes. We have completed the initial investigation into the allegations and have decided to install a static meter to monitor proper power consumption.”