THE crackdown against electricity theft across the country seems to have lost steam just as suddenly as it had started.
People were apprehended on suspicion of stealing electricity. They were put behind bars, fines were imposed and arrears were recovered with a retrospective effect. Large-scale transfers of field officers were done, and reshuffling was carried out. Gradually, we have started hearing less and less about such happenings, and the only reason could be thatsuchhappenings arenot happening anymore.
The whole exercise had started after a strong warning was issued to Discos by the relevant federal ministry to apprehend the power thieves, and to controltheftin theirrespective jurisdictions.
An interesting, and maybe eyeopening, observation is that the culprits were rounded up so swiftly that it was possible only as if the power distribution staff knew beforehand who was the culprit. That being so, connivance of the staff cannot be ruled out. After all, such thefts were going on for years.
Unless there is a continuous and sincere accountability process in force,corruption cannot be rooted out from the country. Short-term operations should not be confused with a sustainable solution to the issue of electricity theft.
