Calcutta, June 28: A special police force to catch power thieves and a court to try them would be set up in the state.

The government today tabled a bill to make the existing law to check power theft more stringent. The Electricity (West Bengal Amendment) Bill, 2005, which was passed by a voice vote, makes power pilferage a cognisable and non-bailable offence.

Power minister Mrinal Banerjee told the Assembly that the Electricity Utility Protection Force would be formed to check rampant theft of electricity. The special court would deal only with cases relating to such thefts.

Explaining the need for it, Banerjee said the police were often caught up with other crimes and it was not possible for them to chase power thieves with priority. “Similarly, a special court is required to handle cases of electricity theft as general courts are preoccupied with a large number of civil and criminal cases,” he said.

Every police station will have a unit of the special force whose officer-in-charge would enjoy powers equivalent to that of a police station officer-in-charge.

Power department sources said the central Electricity Act, 2003, had turned out to be inadequate to combat power thieves. “Earlier, the offenders could be prosecuted but the provisions of the act were not effective enough. The amendment will help check theft more effectively,” an official said.

Banerjee said the Centre has agreed in principle to retain cross subsidy in the power sector. “We had demanded that the cross subsidy be retained in a country like India and the Centre agreed to that. The Electricity Act, 2003, will have to be suitably changed for this,” he said. The Centre has also apparently agreed to bear 90 per cent of the cost of rural electrification following Bengal’s demand.

The state government, Banerjee said, will introduce a surcharge on electricity bills to promote power generation from non-conventional sources. “This levy, however, will not exceed 1 per cent of the total bill amount,” he added.

Trinamul Congress’s Sobhandeb Chattopadhyay accused the CPM-run panchayats of “encouraging” power theft as it helps the party keep a section of its its voters happy.