UP Govt to set up 75 thanas dedicated to tackling power theft

New Delhi: To crack down on the critical issue of power theft in Uttar Pradesh, the Yogi Adityanath government will set up 75 special police stations across the state. The 'Bijli Thanas' would be set up in the surplus spaces of government buildings separately, only for quick action on power theft complaints.

Speaking to newsmen here, UP Power Minister Shrikant Sharma said, "The current T&D loss in the state is 38 per cent while in many parts like Moradabad, the T&D loss is around 70 per cent." Earlier, similar police stations were set up by the Rajasthan government in 2006. Yogi Adityanath's predecessor Akhilesh Yadav too had set up separate police stations for SC and STs, seeing a high rate of crime against them in 2015.

Despite power disruptions reported from across Uttar Pradesh this summer, Sharma ensured smooth power supply by the summer of 2018. "During next summer, we want to ensure smooth power supply. This summer the power demand extended to 20,000 mw. Thus, we are trying to expand power grid capacity from 18,500 mw to 22,000 mw to avoid power disruption," Sharma told reporters.

He added that the state government is also ready to welcome private power producers for more power supply at cheaper prices and is planning to increase the power import rate. Moreover, aiming to provide power to all, the state government has set up the goal of electrifying small villages by 2018 and all households by 2022.

"Among 90,000 small villages, only 26,000 villages have been electrified so far across the state. So we have set a target to electrify the rest by 2018," the minister informed. He also said, "A total of 2,10,00,000 households have electricity infrastructure and our target is to electrify the rest by 2022."

"Under the 'Power for All' scheme, we have targeted 60,000 unelectrified primary schools among 1,69,000 and we will electrify them by 2019. We want to facilitate poor children at least with a fan during the summer," Sharma pointed out.

In a major reform in the UP power sector, the Adityanath government has also started a "Name Shame" campaign, under which the names of consumers with dues bill of Rs 1 lakh will be published in newspapers. It has also started installing prepaid power meters in all government offices and societies of government officials.

"To specify the due bill and to calculate the power units in government offices and in societies of government officials, the state government has made prepaid meters mandatory. Therefore, there will be no confusion on due bills. Units will be calculated by usage," the power minister noted.

During the first month of his governance, the UP CM had already specified the importance of installing meters for electricity consumers to bring more transparency in the power supply system. The state government will distribute power to unauthorized colonies too.Bijli thanas meant to curb state's T&D losses, which are now 38% and a huge 70% in Moradabad