Peshawar Electric Supply Company (PESCO) has given 76,562 new connections in various circles during last six months. Sharing the details, official sources told APP here that out of total, 15,635 connections were given in Peshawar, 13,723 in Khyber, 10,024 in Mardan, 17,648 in Swat, 4,132 in Bannu, , 3,594 in Swabi, 5,758 in Haraza-I and 6,048 in Hazara-II Circles during the said period. Moreover, PESCO has also taken score of steps to control electricity theft. A special task force was constituted at each Circle of PESCO to clean out the 11 KV feeders and remove direct hooks in hard areas with the special assistance of Police / District Administration and PESCO officials, registering FIRs and arresting culprits on site. Installation of Automatic Meter Reading (AMR) meters to automate and bring transparency / accountability into the meter reading / consumption of energy system. AMR was introduced by USAID into the prime consumers of PESCO having 20 KW load and above. Special police offices have been established in PESCO to accompany the raiding teams and arrest the culprits on site by registering FIRs and removing direct hooks. Switching over of manual meter reading to mobile meter reading (MMR) of domestic & commercial consumers. MMR reading has enabled PESCO to print the snaps of meter reading, thus eliminating the overbilling and under billing complaints. Bare conductors were also being replaced with Aerial Bundled Cable (ABC) to control power pilferage. As the menace of theft is mainly caused by the loopholes in the system, the securing of the LT system is the prime priority of the PESCO management. The ABC is the major remedy in areas where rampant hooks on L.T line are common.