Report by Kamgar Ekta Committee (KEC) correspondent
On 6 January 2025, thousands of electricity consumers took out a militant morcha to the Mahavitaran (Maharashtra discom) office in Gadhinglaj, Kolhapur district, to oppose the mandatory installation of smart meters. The morcha was organized under the banner of Electricity Consumers’ Struggle Committee, Gadhinglaj division (Aajra, Bhudargad, Gadhinglaj, Chandgad).
The protesting consumers demanded that the contract given to the Adani Group for supplying smart and prepaid meters to Aajra, Gadhinglaj, Chandgad, and Bhudargad talukas should be scrapped immediately.
They also demanded that the Maharashtra government’s agreement with the Adani Group regarding smart meters should be displayed in Marathi in prominent places in every village in the region. Additionally, public hearings should be organized on this topic at the taluka level.
Consumers said that they will not allow any smart meters to be installed and strongly condemned forceful installation under various pretexts. Recognizing that smart meters are a step towards discom privatisation, they raised slogans of “The privatisation of Mahavitaran must be stopped!” Consumers also noted that the introduction of smart meters will threaten the jobs of several contract and permanent electricity workers.
Another demand raised in the morcha was that farmers who want power connections for under 7.5-hp pumps should be given these connections promptly without enforcing solar power connections.
The protesting consumers forced the Executive Engineer of Mahavitaran to send a notice to Adani Energy Solutions to suspend their work in Gadhinglaj division!
The morcha was organized under the leadership of Com. Sampat Desai of Shramik Mukti Dal. Maharashtra State Electricity Workers’ Federation and other workers’ and peasants’ organizations such as Sarva Shramik Sangathana, Baliraja Shetkari, Swabhimani Shetkari, and CPI-ML (Red Flag) participated in the morcha. Notably, activists from Chiplun, Karad, and Ichalkaranji also joined this morcha. Local activists of opposition parties like Shiv Sena (UBT), Congress and Janta Dal (Secular) also participated.
