Dakshin Haryana Bijli Vitran Nigam (DHBVN) has detected 1,037 cases of theft of electricity during the last month and imposed Rs 3.06 crore penalty on the erring consumers.

"About 50 per cent of the penalty has already been paid by the consumers immediately after detection of theft, while FIRs were lodged with the local police against 520 consumers who did not pay the penalty immediately," a DHBVN spokesman said today.

He said that on getting information from different sources and on the basis of their own surveillance, the DHBVN officials carried over 9,592 raids during April to check pilferage of electricity, out of which 1,037 were caught stealing power.

Maximum raids (3,796) were carried in the Operation Circle Bhiwani where 200 cases of theft were detected.

Interestingly, more theft cases were detected in Haryana's industrial townships of Gurgaon and Faridabad.

He said the maximum number of theft cases (281) were detected in district in Gurgaon Circle followed by Faridabad Circle, where 217 cases of theft were detected.

The numbers of theft cases detected in the areas of Operation Circles Hisar, Narnaul and Sirsa were 206, 113 and 20 respectively.

The spokesman said that DHBVN Managing Director Sudhir Rajpal, has now directed the field officers to file applications against the persons committing theft in the special courts as per provisions in the Electricity Act?2003.

The spokesman further said that during the last financial year, 23,433 cases of thefts of electricity were detected in area of DHBVN and a penalty of Rs 48.62 crore was imposed on the erring consumers.