Kathmandu, June 15
Joint teams of Nepal Electricity Authority and Nepal Police that were deployed to monitor electricity theft in various parts of the country arrested two ward chairs on Thursday — one from Kavre district and another from Saptari district. They have been charged for their involvement in the crime.
Narayan Lamsal, ward chairman of Mandan Deupur municipality-7 of Kavre district, and Ramananda Chaudhary, ward chairman of Tirahut rural municipality-5 of Saptari district, were arrested from their local areas. The joint team also arrested 21 other persons for illegally hooking electricity to their homes in Saptari district.
On Wednesday, a meeting of Home Minister Ram Bahadur Thapa; Minister for Energy, Water Resources and Irrigation Barsha Man Pun; Home Secretary Prem Kumar Rai; NEA Managing Director Kul Man Ghising and Inspector General of Nepal Police Sarbendra Khanal had decided to launch a special programme against electricity theft across the nation.
Following the decision, district administration offices and district units of NEA had instantly launched a joint operation to curb electricity theft and control power leakage.
The police had taken the two accused ward chairmen to the district police headquarters for further proceedings. Lamsal was involved in pilfering electricity for his poultry farm and paid a fine of Rs 41,287. Similarly, Chaudhary was involved in stealing electricity for personal use at home and paid a fine of Rs 15,000. Both the ward chairmen were released today.
Earlier, Pahadi Tharu, ward chair of Madhubani municipality -2 of Bardiya, was also arrested for illegally hooking electricity.
According to Hararaj Neupane, director for distribution and consumer service of NEA, the power utility is planning to conduct joint operations in coordination with Nepal Police in high leakage areas across the country to minimise electricity loss.
As per NEA, there is leakage of around 20.06 per cent of the total electricity supplied at present. It has set a target to reduce this amount to 15 per cent in the next three years.
Written by Nikki Hamal
This news first appeared on https://thehimalayantimes.com/business/ward-chairs-caught-stealing-electricity/ under the title “Ward chairs caught stealing electricity”. Bolchha Nepal is not responsible or affiliated towards the opinion expressed in this news article.
