Crackdown on power thieves continues in Pulwama

BASHARAT RASHID

Pulwama, 14 November: As the power cuts continue to loom in the valley, the authorities launched a crackdown on people having unauthorized electricity connections.

In a major crackdown on the power thieves in the Pulwama district, a special wing of the Power Development Department along with senior officials conducted an anti-theft operation drive in many areas, with the motive to curb the pilferage.

The drives were launched in dozens of villages particularly in Aripal, Awantipora and Tral tehsils, in which hundreds of illegal connections were detected and thousands of illegal electrical appliances were recovered on the spot.

The PDD team, for the past one week, is conducting massive searches to crack a large number of illegal connections, before disconnecting them.

A PDD official Harminder Singh has said that they have recovered a large number of heaters, boilers, and other appliances from the defaulters in the Tral subdivision.

He said that these drives have helped the department in providing a smooth power supply to all the areas, and added that the workshops, where power transformers are taken for repair, also didn’t witness any major case of transformer damage.

“Inspection drives will now be a regular feature in winters and anyone indulged in power theft will not be spared,” Harminder told Arising State.

Similarly, Assistant Executive Engineer (PDD), Mohammad Maqbool Ahanger told Arising State that the motive of these drives is to curb power pilferage at the same time sensitize people about power theft.

He said that curbing pilferage will mitigate the overload, transformer damages and will help the department to maintain the power supply.

“Use of heaters & boilers is against the ISI standards. People should avoid its use and should cooperate with the authorities, to maintain the power supply,” Mohammad Maqbool said.

Earlier, an order was issued by one of the wings of the Power department, which reads that “the corporation has decided to put in place measures to reduce transformer damage and to curb power theft  so as to provide continuous power supply during the  forthcoming winter”

The order further reads that “the inspection drive will continue during the whole winter”.