Agartala, Aug 11 (IANS) Amid several months of agitation by the opposition CPI (M) and Congress against smart electricity meters, Tripura Power Minister Ratan Lal Nath on Tuesday said that the decision to introduce and implement smart meters in the state was taken during the tenure of the previous Left Front government.
Nath said that the smart meter project was initiated during the Left Front regime in 2015 but was not implemented properly, while the Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) had also flagged financial irregularities in the work order worth around Rs 80.7 crore.
“The CAG pointed out many irregularities of the private company, which was awarded to execute the smart meter project, initiated during the Left Front regime,” he said, quoting the CAG report.
The Power Minister, while talking to the media, said that over the past few days, power consumers have been expressing displeasure over the hike in electricity bills and asserted that the state government had no role in fixing the electricity tariff.
“The hike in electricity bills is completely done by the Tripura Electricity Regulatory Commission (TERC), which is an independent and autonomous body. Every year, the TERC fixes the expenditure for TSECL for purchasing power, maintenance and salaries of TSECL. TERC also creates slabs for single-phase, three-phase, commercial and industrial consumers, and the state government has no link with this,” he noted.
Nath said that after that, the Commission gives advertisements regarding power bill rates and details and gives dates for taking suggestions from all concerned as well as from the public.
“After all stipulated processes, the Commission decides the fixed charge, FPPCA (Fuel and Power Purchase Cost Adjustment) and energy bill. Then TSECL prepares the power bill and has no power to increase or decrease the bill,” the Power Minister said.
He also informed that soon after consumers started expressing their displeasure over the electricity bills, Chief Minister Manik Saha, Power Minister Ratan Lal Nath, Finance Minister Pranajit Singha Roy and other senior officials recently held a meeting and discussed the issue in detail.
“The government cannot be a silent spectator. Soon, we will sit again to solve the problem and see how to help the consumers. The BJP government is a pro-people and consumer-friendly government,” Nath said.
Targeting the opposition parties, the Minister accused them of “hatching a conspiracy” by forgetting their past and confusing the people over the smart meter issue.
“On July 9, 2017, during the Left Front tenure, the then Power Minister Manik Dey announced the installation of smart meters across the state to ensure full and timely power bill collection. Smart meters were started during the Left Front government in 2017. The then Chief Minister Manik Sarkar was a long-term Chief Minister, and he must have known that smart meters were started by them. They are confusing the people,” Nath said.
He said that in 2015, the Left Front government had given a work order of Rs 80.7 crore to a private company. In the work order, it was said that within two years, they would complete it. Even after two years, and even after 27 months, they supplied the items and symbolic work started, Nath said.
“Out of 43,000 smart meters, only 34,300 were working. However, within a period of three months, these smart meters also stopped due to technical glitches,” the Minister said.
Nath further alleged that the implementation of the project during the previous Left government had been marred by irregularities and poor execution. The Minister also referred to a report of the CAG, which, he said, pointed out financial irregularities on the part of the company and stated that these not only resulted in an infructuous expenditure of Rs 42.76 crore but also led to the extension of undue favour to the contractor.
Power Minister said the BJP-led government was committed to resolving public grievances and would soon take decisions on issues related to electricity bills. “The present state government is a government that solves problems, and soon the government will take some decisions to solve the problems related to electricity bills,” said Nath, who earlier chaired a meeting at the office of the Tripura State Electricity Corporation Limited (TSECL) here.
The Power Minister’s remarks came amid sustained protests and public criticism over smart electricity meters and rising power bills in the state, with opposition parties including the Congress and the CPI (M) demanding that the government review the implementation of the smart metering system and address the concerns of consumers.
–IANS
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