Amid challenges, DHBVN claims of reduction in cases of power theft

Gurugram: For long, the residents of Gurugram have complained that summers months result in long periods of power cuts in the city.

Conceding that there have been problems in the past, Dakshin Haryana Bijli Vitran Nigam (DHBVN) claimed that this year the situation would be better.

It highlighted that the power theft that used to be at 14 per cent has been brought down to eight per cent.

This has resulted in reducing the losses of the state electricity board.

However, DHBVN workers and linesmen face challenges in distributing power through legal means. In a span of two weeks, there have been two vicious attacks on the DHBVN workers.

The first incident where the electricity board employees were attacked with roads was said to be an incident of road rage.

In the second incident that occurred in Badshahpur on March 23, the workers were attacked when they had gone to install the metres.

Most of the workers have expressed fears about being manhandled when they try to point out the theft. Many of them even claimed that despite various pleas, adequate security has not been provided to them.

It is important to note that most of the linesmen and workers work with inadequate or no safety gears while dealing with high voltage electricity.

Shockingly, the incidents of power theft are occurring not only in far-flung areas of the city but also in the posh neighbourhoods.

Last year, during inspections, a large number of incidents of power thefts were caught in areas of Police Lines, the residential colony that houses officials of Gurugram Police, DLF, Sushant Lok and Palam Vihar.

"This year, the power supply situation is going to be much better than what it has been in the previous years. A major reason for this has been our crackdown on power thefts that have yielded results," said a senior official from DHBVN.

Last year, DHBVN had estimated the power consumption to be of 300 lakh units in Gurugram. This summer, the city has already surpassed it, with power consumption touching 450 lakh units.

With DHBVN once again not being able to meet the power demand in the city, large parts often face power cuts ranging from 6-8 hours.

Not only the residents suffer long duration of power outages but also they have to face with low power voltage supply.