8-hr cut likely for areas with high power losses
Jangveer Singh
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, June 2
The Punjab State Electricity Board (PSEB) is mulling doubling power cuts in the localities with high incidence of power thefts, to save both money and power.

The move, when enforced, could lead to power cuts of up to six or eight hours per day in the walled city area in Amritsar, Jalandhar and Ludhiana as well as those in Muktsar and Hoshiarpur and the border belt. The PSEB has already decided to enforce cuts ranging from three to four hours daily from June 15.

The issue was discussed at a high-level meeting attended by Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal besides Power Secretary Suresh Kumar and senior officials of the PSEB recently. The PSEB was ‘advised’ to implement the proposal to bring in much-needed discipline in power distribution.

Board Member (Distribution) KD Choudhary said though the proposal had not taken shape till now, “we will definitely look into it”. He said areas, which had high power losses, included Amritsar city where the losses were in the 35 per cent range despite a board average of 20 per cent distribution losses. He said other areas, which had losses from 30 to 35 per cent, included Jalandhar (east division), Hoshiarpur (city division) and Patran division besides border areas.

According to board sources, while power theft in Amritsar and Jalandhar and parts of Ludhiana have been high due to narrow streets and gullies, which facilitate the use of hooks to steal power, in Muktsar, political patronage is the main reason for power thefts. In border areas, power theft, which has been calculated at around 40 per cent, is mainly due to delayed checking and lack of easy accessibility.

The PSEB is trying to speed up an earlier initiative launched from Ludhiana under KD Choudhary’s initiative to remove all meters from inside residences and place them on poles outside homes in urban areas and in specially made iron boxes in rural areas. The Board has submitted a Rs 600-crore proposal to the Rural Electrification Corporation (REC) for this purpose. It also proposes to increase checking during summer to minimise distribution losses.Cuts without rural bias

Meanwhile, in another first, the PSEB is set to make power cuts non-discriminatory for the first time in its history. From June 15, with the onset of paddy plantation, the board will impose power cuts ranging from three to four hours in both urban and rural areas. Earlier rural areas used to bear the brunt of cuts. Agricultural pump sets will get an assured supply for eight hours. No power cuts are proposed for the industrial sector except for a compulsory weekly off.