Report by Kamgar Ekta Committee (KEC) correspondent
The Tripura Electricity Consumers Association (TECA) has firmly opposed the introduction of smart electricity metres and demanded withdrawal of metres already installed. In a statement the TECA said, “The TSECL is installing so-called smart metres in household, taking advantage of the absence of house-owners or on the sly by threatening people with cutting off power lines.”
The installation of smart metres is a step towards privatisation of electricity distribution and is being done to benefit the big capitalists like the Tatas, Ambanis, Adanis and Torrents.
The TECA said, “The TSEL has already assigned the task of supplying power to people in various subdivisions, repairing work, emergency service, transformer repairing and replacement and billing works to private agencies with disastrous effects.”
The TECA statement said that till the year 2019 the TSECL had been a profit-making organization but due to management inefficiency this organization has become a loss-making body from the year 2019-2020. Besides, non-recruitment of personnel in the vacant posts of metre reader and linemen has created huge vacancies and their tasks have been given away to unscrupulous private parties who fail to provide the required service and exploit people monetarily.
The TECA announced that the move to install smart metres will be resisted at all costs.