Pratyaya Amrit watches the film at Regent Fun Cinemas in Patna on Saturday. Picture by Nagendra Kumar Singh

Patna, Sept. 13: Bihar State Power (Holding) Company Ltd today screened a documentary film, Katiyabaaz, for its employees and officials to create awareness among them and the public on ways to stop power pilferage.

The 80-minute film, screened at Regent Fun Cinemas, talks about the Kanpur Electricity Supply Company Limited’s inability to supply energy because of massive power pilferage with the help of katiyabaaz. Katiya being the wire used to steal power and katiyabaaz is the expert electricity thief (by illegal hooking).

“Katiyabaaz is a national award-winning documentary film, which was shown to the entire power company family, including its employees — right from the linesmen to officials and engineers. The film shows how the Kanpur company’s managing director took efforts to streamline the power scenario in the city (Kanpur),” power holding company deputy general manager (public relations) H.R. Pandey said.

About the purpose behind showing the film to the employees and officials of power companies, Pandey said: “The purpose is to motivate them (employees and officers) and to create a bonding to work as a team.”

After watching the film, energy secretary and power holding company chairman-cum-managing director Pratyaya Amrit said: “The power sector is a challenging one and this has also been shown in the film too….We have accepted the challenge and took several initiatives as part of reforms, the results for which people would start witnessing from next year around this time.”

Stating that the power company should be a consumer-friendly organisation, Amrit added: “One cannot expect overnight result. It’s a continuous process. It will take time as it has longer gestation period. People will also see the results. It is a long journey.”

Buoyed by the people’s response at camps for getting new connections, Amrit said around 1,700 applications were received on first day (on Friday) alone from 30 camps at Patna Electric Supply Undertaking’s (PESU) 10 power supply divisions.

“We have decided to hold camps for 10 days every month for people seeking new power supply connections. In these camps, people do not have to deposit the requisite amount for getting power connection. Even papers would be verified at the time of installation of meters and amount for getting new connections would be charged from consumers in two equal instalments,” Amrit said.