Chandigarh, Aug 18 (IANS) Having lived conveniently by stealing electricity from illegal connections for many years, residents in two villages of Haryana's Kalayat sub-division have been forced to seek regular domestic connections.

"The Uttar Haryana Bijli Vitran Nigam (UHBVN) has made a major breakthrough in village Batta and Kailram where 1,581 people have applied for release of new domestic connections during the last one month alone," a UHBVN spokesman said here Thursday.

He said the villages have 3,800 houses but only 1,387 domestic connections.

"Out of these, 727 consumers were not making payment of their bills regularly. A large group of residents was drawing electricity through 'kundi' connections or other illegal means," he said.

The UHBVN was able to make this achievement after it removed the bare conductor and made arrangements of power supply through individual PVC insulated electricity line to the regular bill payers.

"It helped in minimising pilferage of power and reduction in aggregated technical and commercial losses of these villages. Simultaneously, the Nigam persuaded the residents to have separate connections and pay their bills timely," the spokesman said.

The Haryana government had waived electricity bill arrears of over Rs.1,600 crore pending against power consumers on the condition that they paid their future bills regularly.