M A I N   N E W S

PSEB fines top officers
DC, SSP among defaulters
Tribune News Service

JALANDHAR, Sept 7 — The PSEB has fined more than 50 top civil and police officials to the tune of Rs 2.20 lakh for a number of violations with respect to power connections at their offices and residences during a weeklong drive that concluded yesterday.

The officials, including the Deputy Commissioner, the Senior Superintendent of Police, the Director, Local Bodies, the Estate Officer, PUDA, the District and Sessions Judge, the Additional Sessions Judges, Judges, the District Transport Officer, the District Grievances Officer, the District Treasury Officer, the Commandant PAP, 7th Battalion, and a few Punjab Civil Services officers have been found “guilty” by a special team of the PSEB for violations including tampering of meters and unauthorised extensions.

While a majority of violations were in the form of unauthorised extensions or unsanctioned load, a considerable number of irregularities committed at offices and residences of officials pertained to missing seals, meter covers and plates. The team headed by an Assistant Engineer was specially constituted by the PSEB to check irregularities and power thefts by government officials.

Sources in the PSEB revealed that the Deputy Commissioner was fined Rs 22,050 for using 13.8 KW of load against the sanctioned load of 6 KW at his official Baradari Residence. Similarly, Mr Jang Bahadur Goyal, former Commissioner of the local Municipal Corporation, will have to pay Rs 18,380 in fine for using 12.233 KW of power though the sanctioned load is 1.500 KW. The meter at the residence of the Regional Transport Officer, Mr H.S. Sra, was found without any seal and to have been using more than the sanctioned load for which he was fined Rs 14,990.

The team found the meters at the residences of two commandants of the PAP were out of order. It imposed a fine of Rs 1,800 in each case. Mr Shiv Dev Singh, DSP, was fined Rs 2,019 for using more than the sanctioned load. In addition, the PSEB team fined Mr H. S Sidhu, an IPS officer, Mr S.P. Garg, District Attorney, and a PAP coach on charges of power theft and 20 other officials below the rank of Inspectors or middle-level officials for similar violations.

Asked as to how the PSEB would realise the amount since the power connections were not in the name of the individual officers and were installed either at their offices or official residences, a senior PSEB official said the amount had been debited to the bills of the consumers.

Interestingly, the team was able to find few offices like that of the SP, CID (Zonal), where everything was in order.

BATHINDA: The anti-power theft drive by the Punjab State Electricity Board (PSEB) has come to a complete halt as the authorities concerned have allegedly failed to ensure the safety of the field staff.

After the manhandling of Mr N.S. Deol, Superintending Engineer (SE), by workers of various employees union on September 1, the field staff has become worried on account of personal safety.

Mr Deol, in a letter to Mr R.S. Dhillon, Chief Engineer (Operation), West Zone, Bathinda, has mentioned that as employees involved in the incident were not taken to task by the authorities concerned members of the field staff had been finding working under such a situation “difficult”.

As a result, operations regarding ensuring of power supply, checking of power theft and recovery of arrears had come to a halt.

The SDO, Civil Lines, Mr Dyal Singh, has made a complaint to the SHO, Civil Lines police station, in connection with the switching off of nine transformers by miscreants last night. He has urged that proper investigations be made into the case.