Smart meter row turns political
PANAJI
The row over Goa’s smart electricity meter rollout intensified on Monday, with Power Minister Ramakrishna Dhavalikar hitting back at the Congress hours after the opposition staged a protest at Vidyut Bhavan demanding the project’s rollback and alleging a “Rs 890-crore scam.”
Dhavalikar accused the Congress of “double standards” and attempting to politicise the issue ahead of elections, while defending the implementation as part of a nationwide programme directed by the Centre and JERC.
Addressing the controversy, Dhavalikar said the smart meter project was not exclusive to Goa and was already being implemented across several states, including Congress-ruled states such as Andhra Pradesh and Telangana.
“Smart meter rollout is happening across India and several states have been implementing it for the last two-and-a-half years. Congress should first protest in their own ruled states before opposing it in Goa,” Dhavalikar said.
The minister claimed Congress leaders lacked understanding of smart meters and their benefits. “Congress has no idea what smart meters are or what benefits they offer. Opposing it in Goa while allowing implementation in their own states is double-faced politics,” he said.
“Do not try to politicise the issue in an election year or seek political mileage out of it. People should not fall prey to such campaigns when the same system is already operational in states governed by Congress,” he added.
The minister’s response came after Goa Pradesh Congress Committee (GPCC) president Amit Patkar led a delegation to Vidyut Bhavan and submitted a memorandum seeking immediate scrapping of the smart meter project and a review of rising electricity bills.
Congress alleged large-scale irregularities in the tender process and claimed the project cost had escalated sharply from Rs 467 crore to Rs 890 crore without transparency.
“The estimate moved from Rs 467 crore to Rs 890 crore. There is no clarity on how this jump happened,” Patkar alleged, stating that officials cited Rural Electrification Corporation (REC) as the source of the revised estimate.
Patkar also raised questions over the participation of Genus Power in the bidding process, alleging that the company had earlier been blacklisted by the department before the order was withdrawn following legal intervention.
He further criticised the government for allegedly imposing smart meters on consumers without consent and accused it of adopting an “authoritarian approach”.
“The government cannot force consumers. People have already paid for digital meters installed a few years ago. This project will only increase the burden on citizens,” Patkar said.
Arguing that transmission losses should be tackled at infrastructure level, he suggested installation of meters at transformers instead of households.
Congress claimed nearly 7.5 lakh consumers could be affected by the rollout and warned of statewide protests if the project was not withdrawn. Patkar also said the party would scrap and re-tender the project if voted to power, promising a more transparent process.
