Lakhimpur District Congress Committee demanded immediate withdrawal of smart meters

LAKHIMPUR: The Lakhimpur District Congress Committee (LDCC) has urged the Governor of Assam to take his steps for immediate holding of pre-paid smart meters and strong action against massive online trading scam. Regarding the both issues the LDCC submitted separate memoranda with public signature to the Governor on Monday through the District Commissioner of Lakhimpur.

In the memorandum, the Lakhimpur District Congress Committee said that the prepaid smart meters were to be installed in the industrial establishments, commercial customers and government offices instead of the general people’s houses, but the current installation of smart meters in households of the general public is against the interest of the people of the state. “As per our understanding, the directive from Minister of Power envisaged installation of prepaid smart meters in government offices and block level and above, as well as all industrial and commercial consumers before December 2023. However, the Assam government has forcefully installed the prepaid smart meters in domestic consumers’ houses,” the memorandum said.

“It is worth mentioning that approximately 80 per cent of the revenue collected by APDCL comes from the organizations, as well as industrial and commercial consumers and only 20 per cent revenue comes from domestic consumers. In spite of this fact, instead of prioritizing the installation of prepaid smart meters at government offices and block level and above, as well as all industrial and commercial consumers, all domestic consumers are forced to install these prepaid smart electricity meters. The installation charge as well as hidden charges has resulted in extraordinarily high electricity bill, which is causing huge public inconvenience. For public which is already reeling from extraordinary price hike, this additional burden of electricity bill from prepaid smart meter is unbearable”, the memorandum further asserted

“In this context, this is to inform you that in State like Gujarat, there was target of 1.65 lakh prepaid smart meters, however till date about 90,000 prepaid smart meters are installed there. However, in Assam against the target of 69,21,329, already about 26 lakh Smart Electricity Meters have been installed., that too mostly in the domestic consumers. This urge from the State Government to forcefully installing Pre-paid Smart Meters among domestic consumers in presumable to give financial benefit to the Sus Meier supplies ie. Adani group. In view of this grave public inconvenience, we have brought the matter to your kind attention and request your intervention to halt as well as reverse the smart meter installation among the domestic consumer immediately”, the memorandum added.

Also Read: Assam: Dibrugarh Police seeks additional custody of multi-crore online trading scam mastermind Bishal Phukan

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