Under VDS of the Dakshin Haryana Bijli Vitran Nigam (DHBVN), a total 8,600 consumers of different categories declared 42 megawatt extra load without paying any penalty during the months of August and September.
"Out of the total 8,600 consumers who declared their extended load, 5,260 were domestic consumers, 2,525 farmers, 643 non-domestic and 169 were industrial consumers," DHBVN spokesman said.
The highest number of beneficiaries came from Gurgaon with 2914 consumers taking advantage of the scheme, followed by Hisar (1826), Sirsa (1283), Narnaul (709), Faridabad (643), Bhiwani (639) and Rewari (583).
The term of VDS, which began in the month of August, has been extended till October 31, 2012. During this period, the DHBVN will not impose any penalty on account of unauthorised extension of load.
However, after expiry of this period of the scheme, a massive campaign will be launched to detect usage of unauthorised electricity load and heavy penalty will be imposed on the erring consumers, the DHBVN spokesman said.
"Unauthorised extension of load by consumers is the main reason of local interruptions in power supply, including low voltage, tripping, break downs, damage to transformers, etc. It is for this reason that it is declared offence under the Electricity Act and hence it invites heavy penalty," he said.
