Agra Discom fails at many fronts

Power Corp MD upset with DVVNL's performance

• Poor revenue collection
• Bad performance in OTS
• Decreased combing
• Less number of franchisees

Richeek Mishra

Agra. Uttar Pradesh Power Corporation Limited (UPPCL) Managing Director Awanish Kumar Awasthi feeling upset with the performance of Dakshinanchal Vidyut Vitaran Nigam Limited (DVVNL) in a meeting held recently has instructed DVVNL officials to perform well or face the consequences. The revenue collection in Agra region was 3.15 percent less than previous year's revenue. Irked over lesser collection, Awasthi instructed DVVNL officials to increase the revenue. Not only this, DVVNL Managing Director Kripal Singh had also assured Awasthi to collect Rs. 157 crore from One-Time-Settlement scheme (OTS).

According to the sources, till now the department was unable to reach near the target, and the scheme is to be closed on January 31. Official figures say that around 1900 cases were registered under OTS in the entire state and only about 10 crore rupees could be collected. Awanish Awasthi instructed all the power officials to improve their performance in this scheme. He also found that the officials were not working properly during combing in their particular areas to check the power theft. In the entire state, around 54,000 connections were checked during the combing out of which only 2060 connections were disconnected.

Not only this, the power corporation officials have registered only 1512 FIRs against defaulters and the total collection was only Rs. 15 crore. These figures show that officials are uninterested in combing operations. Moreover, the progress percentage of DVVNL in Aerial Bunch Conductor (ABC) extension work is only 26.40. With this percentage, the DVVNL cannot achieve the given the target, commented Awasthi. DVVNL is also not working properly on franchise distribution as it targeted to set up 125 collection based franchisees but there are only 57 franchisees.

Similarly, the tenders for 25 Input Based Franchisees were issued around two month back, but till now not even a single franchise has been selected. Revenue collection efficiency percentage is only 69.9 percent, which is far less than other subsidiaries of UPPCL. Considering the low performance of various subsidiaries, Awanish Awasthi warned power corporation officials to achieve the target or department will take stringent action against concerned officials.

MD further said that from few divisions we are getting fake reports of Revenue Loss Reduction Report (SDO wise work performance), which will not be tolerated. He instructed Chief Engineers and Superintendent Engineers to keep an eye on such reports. He further instructed to carry out proper billing in rural as well as in urban areas.