Bengal govt to allow residential consumers to opt out from power smart meters: Official
Amid protests over alleged inflated
electricity bills
following the installation of prepaid
smart meters
, the
West Bengal
government has decided to allow residential power consumers to opt out from the system and revert to traditional devices, an official said on Tuesday.
The government had on Monday temporarily suspended fresh installations of smart meters for domestic consumers, he said.
"The installation of smart meters for residential consumers has been temporarily suspended, but there is no plan for a mass recall. Consumers can choose to switch back to
conventional meters
," the official said.
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The prepaid smart meter installation will continue for commercial and government establishments, the official said.
The decision comes after the
BJP
and the Left Front have been accusing the
Trinamool Congress
government of "burdening households with sudden
tariff hikes
and opaque smart meter installation".
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There had been protests in districts such as Howrah, North 24 Parganas, and Bardhaman, where people alleged their bills doubled or tripled after smart meter installations.
The
Mamata Banerjee
government had earlier approved large-scale smart meter deployment to help the cash-strapped utility, West Bengal
State Electricity Distribution Company
Ltd, recover dues.
The state government departments alone owed over Rs 1,500 crore to the discom, which has a total debt of Rs 15,400 crore in the 2023-24 fiscal, the official said.
In May, Polaris Smart Metering secured a Rs 2,246-crore contract to install 2.2 million smart meters in West Bengal under the Centre's Revamped Distribution Sector Scheme (RDSS).
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