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Unable to check rampant power and line theft, the Ministry of Power has turned to self-help groups and women panchayat groups to meter and monitor all connections. Village-level franchisees of women have been set up in several states including Himachal Pradesh, Karnataka and Uttarakhand
With the government losing Rs 27,446 crore per annum due to power theft and technical losses, the Rajiv Gandhi Grameen Vidyutikaran Yojana (RSSVY) has come up with the unique scheme of getting rural women involved in helping put an end to the large-scale theft. The Ministry of Power, unable to check the rampant power and line material theft, has turned to self-help groups and women panchayat groups to meter and monitor all connections. Village-level franchisees of women have been set up in several states including Himachal Pradesh, Karnataka and Uttarakhand. These franchisees have been given the job of monitoring meters -- from the transformer right up to every village home. It’s an enormous task. Under the RGGVY, 72.7 lakh households living in 62,040 villages have already been electrified. Another 64 lakh connections in BPL households have been provided electricity free of charge though the overall target in the Eleventh Five-Year Plan is to reach out to 2.34 crore BPL households. The outlay for the RGGVY is Rs 26,001 crore. Sita Devi, a member of one such self-help group operating near the city of Srinagar in Uttarakhand said on the phone: “Our SHG has started a franchisee by entering into an agreement with our local distribution franchisee. Since the distribution licensee was already short of staff and not able to detect the pilferage taking place in our rural areas, we were asked to monitor things on the ground for which we get a commission from the collections.” The women admit it’s not an easy task as most villagers prefer not having an electricity connection even if it is being provided at subsidised rates. “They would rather steal than get a metered connection. This is true even for BPL families whose connections are free,” say the SHG groups. Still, the RGGVY has set up 99,745 franchisees in 16 states with a total capital subsidy of Rs 14,953 crore. Losses in the power sector have come down from 35% in 2003-4 to 33% in 2006-7. States in the forefront of the fight to reduce losses by ensuring 100% feeder metering are Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh. Critics of the RGGVY assert that franchisees in rural areas will not work because of low consumer density, unlike urban areas where consumer density is high and where theft is not the primary reason for the losses. Also, many villages remain unelectrified despite the infrastructure having been put in place because there is no one to maintain it. -- Rashme Sehgal Infochange News & Features, September 2009
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