Dhanushadham in Dhanusha district has been declared electricity theft free municipality. Under the project of Dhanushadham municipality and the coordination of Nepal Electricity Authority, the municipal electricity theft-free zone has been declared.
Managing director of the authority Kulman Ghising and municipality head Baleshwar Mandal declared the municipality as electricity theft free zone in a program held at Dhanushadham on Saturday. In the program, the backward and economically disadvantaged people living in Dhanushadham municipality area Free electricity meters have also been distributed to households.
There is a legal provision that if you directly or indirectly pull or connect an electric line from another electric line (hooking), use fraudulent electricity to the meter, break the meter, destroy it, damage it or make it inoperable in any other way, etc. Unauthorized and unsafe use of electricity through theft causes financial loss every year.
Authority has been distributing free electricity meters to backward and economically disadvantaged households who cannot afford meters to expand access to electricity and prevent unauthorized use of electricity. Through its distribution centers across the country, the authority has been providing free meters and connecting electricity to the poor. Disadvantaged class with box of 5-30 ampere capacity as per authority standards Single phase energy meter, MCB box will be available for free. The authority does not charge service charges for meter connection. Dhanushadham has taken a big challenge by declaring electricity theft-free municipality through its own efforts and initiative. Executive Director Ghising said in the program that since electricity theft is a social problem, the technical works to be done by the authority to control it have been carried forward with high priority .
Ghising said that the last phase of electrification works are going on from the top of the hill to Madhesh district, Karnali and far western slums to provide electricity to the citizens who are currently living in such places without electricity.
“In order to increase the consumption of electricity in the country, we are working with priority to make the supply reliable and quality in the places where electricity is available, and to provide electricity to the poor places where it is not reached, we will provide electricity to the households even without paying the salaries”, Ghising said .
“We need to increase the production and productivity through irrigation by supplying electricity to the fields of the Terai, which is the food store of Nepal, for this we have advanced the electrification of irrigation in cooperation with the local levels,” he said.
Ghising said that in the districts of Madhesh province, where there is a great potential for expansion of the agricultural and industrial sectors, various projects are being worked on for the expansion and strengthening of infrastructure structures for transmission and distribution to make electricity supply sufficient, reliable and quality.
Mentioning that a lot of work has been done in irrigation and electrification towards consumers, the municipal chief said that subsidies should be arranged for electric stoves to replace cooking gas. A play was presented in the program to convey the message that electricity theft is a social crime.
In Madhesh province, electricity leakage towards distribution is 14.20 percent in the current fiscal year 2024/25. In the current year, the target of reducing electricity leakage in Madhesh province to 11.9 percent has been set. In order to control non-technical leakages, the authority is carrying out a campaign to control theft, tighten tax arrears collection, take strict action against those who steal by bypassing and hooking meters, replace closed meters, encourage them to take meters, identify customers with no meter reading (stock units) and read them as a campaign.
The authority is conducting activities accordingly by giving a target of leakage control to all its distribution centers every year. The authority had reduced the electricity leakage of the system to about 12.73 percent last year. Until 8 years ago, 25.78 percent electricity was leaking from the system .
Source: Kantipur
