Assam to set up police stations to check power theft

GUWAHATI: The Assam government will set up 20 police stations across the state by January next year to check rampant power theft even as the administration was determined to introduce digital meters which had evoked protests earlier.

The new police stations would only monitor and stop power theft that led to overall loss of Rs 55 crore to the Assam State Electricity Board, Power Minister Pradyut Bordoloi told reporters today.

The cabinet had already given its approval for the new police stations, he said.

On the introduction of the controversial digital meters evoking protests from electricity consumers, consumer fora, some political parties that they were faulty, Bordoloi said, the new metres were tamper proof and accurate.

Unlike the existing electro-magnetic meters, digital meters are very sensitive and can record from very low to very high consumption accurately, he said.

To emphasise the credibility of digital meters, Bordoloi said, both domestic and commercials meters carried BIS (Bureau of Indian Standards) specification numbers, 13779 and 14697 respectively.

As the decision to introduce digital meters was a part of the energy auditing system introduced by ASEB in 2004 to reduce the overall technical, distribution and commercial loss of Rs 55 crore, Bordoloi said, the government would have to go ahead with it. In view of the widespread complaints about the digital meters being faulty, the government had urged the Central Power Research Institute in Bangalore, under the Union power ministry, to test the meters randomly.

Bordoloi also blamed a section of ASEB employees with vested interests for being involved in the anti-digital meter campaign, and had instructed the Board authorities to take appropriate action against them.

Noting that urban consumers were readily changing over to digital meters, Bordoloi said the protests were mostly from the small towns as digital meters would expose those running rackets of low bill payment and meter less consumption.

Under the power reforms, 1.64 lakh digital meters were installed in urban areas since 2004 but the complaints began after the rural areas were included, he said.