Journalism of Courage
Dumped, thrown on road: Protests against prepaid meters spread in Uttar Pradesh
While authorities present prepaid metering as a move to improve billing efficiency, consumers see it as a coercive measure to bring higher charges and abrupt disconnections
A protest against smart meters held by AAP workers at Shakti Bhavan in Lucknow, Sunday. (PTI)
In Fatehpur, smart meters were dumped at a local power station. In Agra, women threw them onto the streets. In Aligarh, Firozabad, and Hathras, people marched to substations with the meters held aloft.
Across districts in Uttar Pradesh, unrest is growing among electricity consumers over “smart” prepaid meters. While authorities present prepaid metering as a nation-wide reform to improve billing efficiency and reduce losses, many consumers see it as a coercive move bringing higher charges and abrupt disconnections without safeguards.
According to sources, the protests gathered pace after automatic disconnections began in March. Conflicting readings of policy — across the Electricity Act, regulatory guidelines and recent statements by Union Power Minister Manohar Lal — have deepened uncertainty.
“In my 25 years of working for electricity consumers, I have never seen protests of this scale,” Avadhesh Kumar Verma, chairman of the consumer pressure group Uttar Pradesh State Electricity Consumer Council and a member of Central and State Electricity Advisory committees, told The Indian Express.
The protests have also become a political flashpoint, with the Opposition seeking to corner the Yogi Adityanath government ahead of next year’s Assembly election. Samajwadi Party chief and former chief minister Akhilesh Yadav framed the issue as corruption.
“The public is being fleeced under the pretext of installing ‘smart meters’. The implementation of smart meters has become a vehicle for large-scale fraud. If such dishonesty is possible with smart meters, how can Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) be considered secure? Why would it not be possible to manipulate EVMs as well?” he told reporters in Lucknow.
Uttar Pradesh Power Minister A K Sharma hit back at the Opposition, accusing them of “doing politics” over smart meters. He also said that electricity supply had “improved drastically” after smart meters were installed. However, the problem was with the behaviour of electricity workers, “that’s why the central government has asked states to install smart meters”.
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He also dismissed allegations of higher power bills, saying “machines are not biased”. “We should have smart meters for transparent billing.”
While Uttar Pradesh State Electricity Consumer Council alleges that “forced shift to prepaid mode” led to the protest, officials from the power corporation say they are following central government directions.
Amid the escalating situation, power corporation officials worked through Sunday to address grievances and clarify doubts on smart meters and prepaid billing guidelines. The government has paused new installations in an attempt to contain protests, but demonstrations have continued.
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