– Photo : Amar Ujala
Expansion
After installing smart prepaid meters, an alert message will be sent to the consumer as soon as his account balance reaches zero. Consumers will have to pay Rs. 10 for this message. Then Rs. 50 will have to be paid to get the connection reconnected. For this, the Power Corporation has submitted a proposal to the Regulatory Commission. As soon as the information about this was received, the State Consumer Council has started protesting. The Council has called it unconstitutional.
Preparations are underway to install smart prepaid meters in the state. On the other hand, Power Corporation has filed Annual Revenue Requirement (ARR) on behalf of the electricity distribution corporations. Meanwhile, Power Corporation has filed a new proposal in the Regulatory Commission. According to this, if the recharge taken by the consumer in the smart prepaid meter gets exhausted, then an alert message will be sent regarding power cut the next day. In lieu of this message, the consumer will have to pay a charge of Rs 10. Similarly, after depositing the fee, the consumer will have to pay a fee of Rs 50 for getting the connection reconnected. Whereas till now there is no such arrangement in prepaid meters.
The proposal is unconstitutional, we will not let it be implemented: Verma
State Consumer Council President Awadhesh Kumar Verma said that Section 56 of the Electricity Act 2003 provides for giving notice 15 days before disconnecting the connection. No fee can be charged for disconnecting or connecting the connection. Under Section 47(5) of the Electricity Act 2003, it cannot be made mandatory to install smart prepaid meters in the premises of consumers.
In smart prepaid meters, the connection gets disconnected automatically on non-payment, then why is this charge being levied. He said that in case of postpaid, manpower is required to connect and disconnect the connection. That is why there is a provision of Rs 300 charge. In prepaid, all the arrangements are auto-generated.
