Discom claims ‘Gruha Jyothi’ scheme brought down power thefts in State

With the implementation of the scheme, the statistics show that the cases of power theft in the TGSPDCL area have reduced drastically in 2024 compared to 2022 and 2023

Hyderabad: Even as power theft is posing significant challenges in the State, the Telangana State Southern Power Distribution Company Limited (TGSPDCL) claims that the supply of free power of up to 200 units under the ‘Gruha Jyothi’ scheme, introduced by the Congress government as part of its poll promises, has helped bring down instances of power thefts in its jurisdiction.

Using electricity directly from service wires, meter tampering, and taking household connections and using them for commercial purposes are considered theft by electricity companies. The SPDCL officials claimed that with the implementation of the ‘Gruha Jyothi’ scheme, the statistics show that the cases of power theft in the TGSPDCL area have reduced drastically.

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The cases of power theft in 2024 decreased significantly compared to 2022 and 2023 under TGSPDCL operating at the Hyderabad centre. As many as 65,242 cases were booked in 2022 and they increased to 69,064 in 2023. However, by November 2024, only 28,536 were registered, which was less than half of the cases booked last year, the officials said.

Currently, there are over 42 lakh beneficiaries in the State covered under the Gruha Jyothi scheme. The State government has been issuing zero bills under the scheme since March last year. It applies to household consumers who have food security cards and consume less than 200 units. The Congress government earmarked Rs 2,418 crore for the ‘Gruha Jyothi’ scheme in the budget.

However, as per the Telangana State Northern Power Distribution Corporation Limited (TGNPDCL) data, it has identified 1,18,690 Scheduled Castes (SCs) and Scheduled Tribes (STs) consumers were availing supply directly from the overhead lines of Discoms without service connection and meters under its jurisdiction.

The NPDCL authorities have launched a special scheme to extend new service connections to SC and ST consumers residing in designated colonies – SC Colonies and Thandas – using illegal power connections. Such connections will now be replaced with regular connections. No penalty will be charged to the beneficiaries.

Similar initiatives have been going on in the SPDCL jurisdiction to set up meters in SC and ST colonies to reduce power thefts. Power experts claim that the decrease in power theft cases cannot be attributed to the introduction of ‘Gruha Jyothi’ scheme as there could be various reasons for it, including the reduction in raids to identify power thefts.