Ongole: Left protests smart meters, extra charges in bills

Ongole(Prakasam district): The leaders and workers of Left parties staged a protest against fixing of smart meters to agriculture pump sets and collecting extra money in the name of various charges as part of domestic electricity bills, at the district Collectorate here on Monday.

CPI State committee leader Gujjula Eswaraiah, CPM district leader GV Kondareddy, CPI ML district secretary DVN Swamy, CPI ML New Democracy leader Chittipati Venkateswarlu and others spoke at the protest. They said that the Centre and State governments are giving shock to the public in the name of electricity bills, and the people are forced to pay adjustment charges even though they paid the bill for the units they consumed earlier. They said that the government is now imposing a burden of Rs 6,000 crore in the name of various charges like fixed charges, current charges, true up charges, cess etc on the public, and is now ready to increase the charges every month, just as the LPG cylinder cost. The leaders worried that the electricity generation and distribution in the State is going into the hands of Adani, as he gets the contract for supplying electricity for 30 years in the State. They said the leaders, rulers and companies colluded together to buy electricity at high prices, and are now about to damage the spirit of the scheme that provides 200 units of electricity free for agriculture.

The leaders explained that the government wants to collect the meter fixing charges with interest in instalments for 10 years, and the farmers will be asked to recharge those meters every month, as they do with the mobile connection. They suspected that the companies would introduce premium pricing for the electricity when the demand for power is at its peak and advised the public and farmers to oppose the move by the government. They called for another public movement against the electricity charges and asked the people to join it voluntarily.