Report by Kamgar Ekta Committee (KEC) correspondent
People of Maharashtra have been opposing installation of smart electricity meters for many months. Yet the installation of smart prepaid meters in the name of TOD meters in Nagpur city and the entire Vidarbha is being carried out secretly by Mahavitaran, the government owned power distribution company.
A protest was held in Nagpur on 1 August 2025 under the banner of the Vidarbha Rajya Andolan Samiti (Vidarbha State Movement Committee) against smart meters. The protesters lit torches and marched towards Gandhibagh Park.
People are convinced that the installation of these meters is only to benefit the big capitalists and will lead to the exploitation of electricity consumers.
In the state including Nagpur, where these prepaid electricity meters have been installed, electricity consumers are paying 4 to 5 times more than normal bill for electricity.
A recent report from a colony in Dombivali, a suburb of Mumbai, said that hundreds of people have been receiving monthly electricity bills of Rs. 25000 to 30,000 after installation of the smart electricity meters as against their normal bill of Rs. 2 to 3000.
Therefore, consumers are angry due to this loot through smart meters. According to the assurance of the Chief Minister, who is also the Energy Minister, if electricity consumers install smart prepaid meters, they will get 85 paise less bill per unit. But this is just a fraudulent announcement, people believe. People want the installation such meters to be stopped and wherever they have been installed, they want them to be replaced with earlier meters.