Bhopal News: Energy Police Stations Propose To Check Power Theft, Says State Energy Minister Pradhyuman Singh Tomar

Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh): A proposal had been prepared to establish energy police stations to check the increasing incidents of electricity theft in the state. This would help the power companies control their commercial losses, said state energy minister Pradhyuman Singh Tomar during a press conference here on Sunday.

Presenting the achievements of his department for the past two years as well as the challenges before it, he said that annual subsidy of Rs 26,000 crore was provided to domestic and agricultural consumers and every year, discount of around Rs 2000 crore in electricity rates was given to industries. Even then, consumers were not paying power bills. Owing to this, total electricity dues had crossed Rs 11,000 crore.

He said that a target had been set to establish two power plants each with a capacity of 660 MW in Sarni and Chachai. Sanction had been given to the transmission company s five-year plan of Rs 5000 crore.

He said that under the smart meter arrangement, people would get power bills timely. Benefit of cheap electricity received by the state government was being given to smart meter consumers from 9 AM till 5 AM.

The state s power capacity was 25,081 MW which made it a power surplus state. Recently, the cabinet decided to create more than 50,000 regular posts in power companies to make them more effective, he said.

Efforts were being made so that by 2028, there would be no hike in electricity rates, he said.