Protest and memorandum submitted at Sribhumi Divisional Office demanding withdrawal of prepaid smart Meters
Barak Valley News: On
the call of All India Electricity Consumers Association, a protest was
organized in front of the APDCL office on Friday at the initiative of the
Karimganj District Committee of All Assam Electricity Consumers Association
demanding the withdrawal of prepaid smart meters. The organization's District
Committee President Sunitaranjan Dutta, Secretary Sujitkumar Pal and others
handed over a memorandum containing the demands to the Sub-Divisional Engineer.
The organization's officials gathered at the APDCL office on Shibbari Road and
raised various slogans on Friday. In relevant speeches, Sunitaranjan Dutta,
Sujitkumar Pal and Jyotish Purkayastha said that the people of Assam have been
opposing prepaid smart meters since the beginning. There has been intense anger
against smart meters all over the state. People have spontaneously come out on the
streets against smart meters in every place in the state. The All Assam
Electricity Consumers Association has been demanding the scrapping of this
smart meter for the past two years. But it has been observed that the
government, ignoring the strong opposition of the people, is implementing this
smart meter against their wishes in the interest of only the corporate group.
Even now, there are no complaints from the public about
digital meters. However, people from private companies are going door to door,
using various methods of intimidation and deceit, and are removing digital
meters and installing controversial smart meters without consulting the
customers. They called for a strong movement against this.
The speakers said that numerous complaints have already been
raised across the state that those whose homes or other establishments have had
smart meters installed are having to pay electricity bills three to four times
higher than before.
The authorities do not have a good answer as to why a
customer has to pay such a high bill after replacing a digital meter with a
smart meter using the same type of electrical equipment. Since prepaid smart
meters have to be recharged in advance, millions of poor customers are facing
serious difficulties. After the introduction of prepaid smart meters, customers
have to deposit money in advance to get electricity service. However, they have
to suffer from load shedding for hours. Electricity Act not providing
electricity by taking advance money
They stated that it is a direct violation of Section 57 (2)
of the 2003 Act. According to the central government's gadget notification,
prepaid smart meters were first ordered to be installed in government offices
and various industrial establishments. But instead of doing so, why were they
installed in the homes of ordinary consumers first, the speakers questioned.
The memorandum given today said that in the current socio-economic situation
and in view of the severe financial crisis in the lives of people, lakhs of
consumers are being asked to pay advance money for their electricity
consumption.
They cannot afford to spend. As a result, the prepaid system
has imposed a huge financial burden on ordinary consumers. This will disrupt
the financial balance of families. Moreover, the lifespan of these meters will
be five to six years. After that, if this meter breaks, the consumers will have
to buy a new meter for ten to twelve thousand taka. Therefore, prepaid meters
are not acceptable in any way. Moreover, due to the weak internet network,
online recharging will not be very easy. Especially for illiterate consumers,
online recharging, understanding messages sent to mobile phones, viewing them
on time, etc. are very difficult. Once the metering system is prepaid, there
will be no need for billing staff and meter readers. As a result, thousands of
people will lose their jobs, which will push the electricity distribution
system towards privatization. The protesters expressed their anger that prepaid
smart meters are completely against the interests of consumers and a tool for
privatization of the distribution system. Among others present at the program
on this day were Debabrata Shuru, Manoj Dev, Prithvijit Dev, Parimal
Chakraborty, Bishnu Duttapurkayastha, Ajay Chowdhury, Gopalchandra Pal, Jyotish
Purkayastha, Sohel Ahmed Nomani, Khaled Ahmed, and Shiva Das.
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