The special drive to check tempered meters was led by Executive Engineer Anil Khaparde. An MSEB release informs that a large number of consumer were found to have illegally adjusted their meters to show incoherent readings.

In several cases the tampering has been done so skillfully, concealing the wires behind meter boards, that even the MSEB squad could not detect anything wrong at first sight.

Six consumers failed to pay the fines and their connections have been cut. Most of the tampering cases were detected in Chhapru Nagar Housing Society, Jamna, Jeevandhara, Tulsi, Suraj, Santkrupa, Jailaxmi, Jeevandeep and Yashwant apartments and housing societies.

The release says, in such cases the MSEB can initiate action by the police but choosing not to do so Khaparde and his team simply asked theconsumers to pay the prescribed fine. The fined consumers are said to have denied the involvement of any MSEB employees in the tampering.

Faulty meters detected during the drive are being replaced by charging Rs 1,200 for three-phase meters and Rs 530 for single-phase meters.

The MSEB team that conducted the drive included H T Dekate, Iyer, Bokare, Dani, Sharma, Nafde, Patil, Deshmukh, Bagde, Bhatkar and Khushvaha.