‘Get up to 50k rewards for reporting power theft & discrepancies'

Time of India

2 days ago

Bhopal: Help catch energy thieves and earn rewards! In a unique type of easy social audit of energy distribution, east discom--head quartered at Jabalpur-- has launched V Mitra—an app on which consumers can complain about energy theft and discrepancies, and get rewards ranging from Rs 10 to Rs 50,000.
So far, Rs 1 lakh rewards were made. In a similar scheme of Central Discom, five people were rewarded so far in this financial year.
Officials, however, say that the V Mitra app of East Discom is not only restricted to reporting power theft cases. "It is basically a sort of social audit of the distribution. Entire data is in public, and consumers can report anything that is not correct. It will help us rectify the data," managing director of Madhya Pradesh Purv Kshetra Vidyut Vitaran Company Limited, Anay Dwivedi, said.
This is a versatile app and is one of its kind, say officials of east discom.
"Besides reporting the theft cases, each and every connection of our discom is now geo-tagged. If any person finds that tagging is incorrect, he or she can report it. If it is incorrect, a nominal reward of Rs 10 is provided. Likewise, each and every connection is indexed, meaning details like the transformer to which the connection is connected are available in the public domain.
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Any discrepancy in it could also be reported.
Now, load enhancement-related complaints could also be made. Suppose an informer informs that the connection is of 2 kilowatts but the connected load is of 5 kilowatts of a domestic connection. Then, if it is found true, the informer gets Rs 25 per kilowatt as a reward," general manager commercial, East Discom, PK Agarwal, said.
Till July 17, Discom received a total of 1,190 information entries from users across various circles under its jurisdiction.
These submissions are currently under different stages of scrutiny and verification by the company's vigilance teams. In recognition of credible information that was successfully verified, MPPKVVCL processed monetary rewards for 49 consumers, amounting to a total disbursal of Rs 21,300.
In addition, a provisional reward pool of Rs 75,800 was identified for further processing, which will be finalised subject to the outcome of ongoing validations by the vigilance department.
Meanwhile, for central discom, which distributes electricity in Bhopal and Gwalior, the discom initiated a reward scheme for people informing about energy theft cases. Ten percent of the total recovery from power theft cases is paid to the person informing about it. Five percent of the 10 percent incentive amount given to informants for reporting illegal electricity use will be paid immediately after the final determination order is issued if the information is found to be correct.
The remaining five percent is paid after full recovery, said sources.Since April 1, 2025, Rs 11,500 were directly deposited into the bank accounts of five successful informants, said sources from central discom. Additionally, officials and employees involved in investigation and recovery were given a 3,000 rupee incentive added to their monthly salary, officials said.
Now the amount is being transferred online directly into the bank accounts of informants, and before the online process began, seven successful informants received a total of Rs 2,18,000 in incentive payments for 63 cases where full payment was received, said official sources from central discom.