The Pashchimanchal Vidyut Vitran Nigam Limited (PVVNL) — the power distribution company that supplies electricity across 14 districts of western Uttar Pradesh — has filed FIRs against nearly 500 erring meter readers for producing faulty meter readings and collected ₹60.44 crore from the defaulters since October 13, when the discom started its disconnection drive.
Arvind Mallappa Bangari, managing director(MD), PVVNL, said that during the disconnection drive, the discom has pulled the plugs of 71,611 defaulters in the districts of Meerut, Baghpat, Ghaziabad, Gautam Budh Nagar, Bulandshahr, Hapur, Muzaffarnagar, Saharanpur, Shamli, Bijnour, Moradabad, Sambhal, JP Nagar and Rampur. “Our raiding teams have also collected ₹60.44 crore from the power consumers across these 14 districts for failing to clear their outstanding dues,” he said.
Bangari further said that as many as 40,848 meter exception cases have also been attended to during this drive, in which the meters were found to be out of order. “Also, FIRs against over 500 meter readers have been lodged in different districts. Alarmed at the poor revenue collection in some areas of these districts, we started checking the actual meter readings. We found that the meter readers often connive with the owners of the meters and downplay the number of units consumed by them. The actual units consumed continue to get recorded as store-reading and the consumers have no other option than to pay for them,” he said.
The PVVNL MD also said that while Noida division has 2,120 recorded cases of faulty meters, Ghaziabad division had 4,701 erring meters. “We have disconnected 11,746 electricity connections in Ghaziabad, whereas 4,095 lines were disconnected in Noida. The total revenue collected from Noida zone from the defaulters is over ₹4.05 crore, while over ₹18.23 crore was collected from the Ghaziabad — the highest in the entire Meerut division,” he said.
