Employees booked for electricity theft, accused of protecting the owner, raising many questions

In the case of electricity theft by tampering with the meter of the Vasu Steel Factory at the UPCL power station located at Gurukul Narsan, a case has been filed against the factory employees, but the owner’s name has not been included in the case. Questions are being raised as to whether the employees were stealing electricity for the factory on their own. Demands are being made from UPCL and the police to take action against the factory owner who defrauded the headquarters of crores of rupees. In fact, for large factories, one meter is installed on the factory premises and the other in the respective power station. Double metering is used to prevent power theft or other meter-related irregularities, but here, both meters were being tampered with. Investigating this matter will now be a challenging task for UPCL, as a large number of steel factories operate in the Roorkee and Bhagwanpur areas. Eight cities, including Mangalore and Landhaura, are among the most notorious for power theft. Eight cities, including Mangalore and Landhaura, are among the most notorious for power theft in the state. Recently, the Regulatory Commission expressed concern about this during the hearing of UPCL’s review petition. It advised UPCL to control these high-loss feeders. This is clearly mentioned in the Commission’s decision rejecting the review petition. Aggregate technical and commercial losses (AT&C losses) were recorded at 30.58 percent in Gadarpur, 27 percent in Jaspur, 53.92 percent in Joshimath, 53 percent in Khatima, 27 percent in Laksar, 69.40 percent in Landhaura, 47.62 percent in Mangalore, and 27.25 percent in Sitarganj. UPCL is incurring losses worth crores every year. In Roorkee Division, distribution losses were recorded at 31.21 percent in 2021-22, 31.09 percent in 2022-23, and 31.50 percent in 2023-24. The regulatory commission had acknowledged that these high-loss feeders were acting like a pest for UPCL. UPCL was incurring losses of crores of rupees every year. It’s clear that power theft is rampant here, and the recent incident has revealed the involvement of UPCL officials. Energy accounting audits of all industries: UPCL MD Anil Kumar has ordered an energy accounting audit of all steel factories and other industries with high power consumption in the entire region, including Roorkee and Bhagwanpur. This will clarify the level of power consumption. If any irregularities are detected at any level, action will be taken accordingly.