Balurghat, Aug. 10: The vigilance wing of the West Bengal State Electricity Distribution Company Ltd today sealed three oil mills at Sibbari and an ice plant at Barabazar on charges of stealing power worth Rs 39 lakh.

Both the places are located in Gangarampur. Six persons have been arrested.

Acting on a tip-off, a team from the vigilance wing raided the facilities in the early hours of today. The officials had conducted raids at these places on June 13 too, but had failed to catch anyone.

Vigilance committee superintendent (engineering) Priyaranjan Chakraborty said together the four units had stolen electricity worth Rs 39 lakh.

“We are now trying to find out if anyone from the power department was in league with the accused. We shall initiate departmental action if any employee is found guilty,” he said.

According to the superintendent, power theft is most rampant in Gangarampur. “Nearly 70 per cent of the total electricity distributed in Gangarampur is pilfered,” he said.

Next is Tapan (65 per cent), followed by Buniyadpur (60 per cent), said the superintendent.

Chakraborty added that common people were suffering the most because of mass-scale power theft by small-scale industries.

“It has been causing frequent power cuts,” the superintendent said.

A 132-KV power station was installed at Gangarampur three years ago to solve the electricity shortage in the area as well as in Bansihari, Tapan and Harirampur. But that failed to change the situation because of large- scale power theft, said the superintendent.

“We were supposed to get Rs 13 crore in electricity bills from Gangarampur alone during the last fiscal. But we got only Rs 6 crore. Most of the small-scale industries are running on stolen electricity,” Chakraborty said.

The divisional engineer of South Dinajpur, Shubhendu Sarkar, said the power system in the district might collapse any moment because of such theft.

“I appeal to the common people to cooperate with he electricity department and secretly report power thefts. We have started a case against the owners of the oil mills and the ice plant for cheating the power department of Rs 39 lakh,” Sarkar said.

“We had kept the plans for today’s raids under wraps. We shall conduct similar secret raids in other areas too,” Chakraborty said.