Electric Vigilantes

Stealing power from the neighbourhood line? Take care. Your neighbour may get rich!

- By Rahul Noronha

CALL IT DECENTRALISATION OF POWER by other means. Like many public sector distribution companies in the country, the East Zone Power Distribution Company (EZPDC) of Madhya Pradesh has for long bled from losses. Or, again not atypically, been forced to fall back on government bailout packages to bankroll populist but fiscally imprudent decisions. But now it's come up with a novel way to reduce its aggregate technical and commercial (AT&C) losses. As a brainwave, it's surely the child of a voltage surge.

On July 1, the company rolled out an app-based reporting mechanism that keeps the whistleblower's identity anonymous. Its backronym, V-MITRA, is as spiffy as its full form is clunky: Mitigation of Irregularities Through Resource Audit.