Agartala, February 18 (TIWN): Incidents of power theft increases frequently in Tripura in three consecutive years. The Power Department and the State Government though claims to take preventive steps, but the result is vice versa. Hon’ble Minister-In-Charge of the Power Department, Manik Dey himself depicted the picture against the question raised by MLA Ratan Lal Nath.

The details of power theft in the three consecutive years:

Cases lodged against the persons in the consecutive years:

 The year wise calculation of the total amount of penalty is:

Other than that illegal use of hook lines becomes a major issue of anxiousness among the people. Though the state government has warned against use of power through hook line and even asked the concerned officials of Tripura State Electricity Corporation Limited to disconnect all the hook lines in working following law, but proper steps were not taken in proper consent. On the other hand, Tripura State electricity Corporation Limited (TSECL) is facing a serious financial crisis with losses incurred in the last financial year touching Rs 100 crore. The loss, mostly due to illegal hook-line use, as well as rise in price of natural gas, has compelled the TSECL to propose hike in hike power tariff.

At present, various categories under domestic power price stands at an average Rs 2.80 per unit, which, according to TSECL sources, leads to huge deficit. A consultancy farm will be engaged to prepare a roadmap for processing the proposed tariff hike and will submit it to Tripura Electricity Regulatory Commission for its approval.

The details of hook lines are:

However, to prevent this, Smart Meter system will soon be launched in Agartala. Recently, the Government of India had decided to launch this smart meter system in the 14 cities of the country. Among them, Agartala is included in the list of fourteen. This system is adopted to prevent theft of power, measuring the amount of power consumed.