There should be an immediate halt to the ongoing forcible installation of prepaid smart meters as the government has pushed the project without transparency and by hiding crucial details from the public. There are large scale irregularities in the tender process, the smart meters are practically a megascam due to unexplained inflated costs. The initial contract value increased from Rs 467 crore to Rs 890 crore, there is no clarity on how and why this rise occurred, there has also been an unusual spike in power bills of domestic consumers where smart meters have been installed. Why, some people in other states have demonstrated how the smart meters are recording live electricity consumption even when their houses have been closed for long periods. There have been irregularities in the tender process too, one of the bidding companies had faced action from the Goa Electricity Department earlier. There is absolutely zilch transparency about this murky deal as is the norm with all public works undertaken by the BJP government. There should be a full public disclosure of all RFPs, tender documents, financial and technical bids, clauses, special conditions and process before the rollout is given the green signal.
