Privatisation Of Electricity: Congress Workers Protest Against Prepaid Smart Meters In MP's Ujjain

Ujjain (Madhya Pradesh): In protest against the privatisation of electricity and the imposition of prepaid smart meters in Madhya Pradesh, the City Congress Committee and the Rural Congress Seva Dal jointly staged a demonstration and submitted a memorandum addressed to the Energy Minister here on Monday. 

Congress workers and consumers symbolically burnt an effigy of the smart meter to register their dissent. The leaders asserted that smart meters would become a means of exploiting consumers and eroding public trust in the electricity distribution companies.

City Congress Committee president Mukesh Bhati and Chain Singh Chaudhary submitted the memorandum at the Madhya Pradesh Electricity Distribution Company’s Vallabh Nagar Zone office.

The document highlighted concerns that under the Electricity (Amendment) Bill, 2022, prepaid smart meters are being installed across the state without adequately informing the consumers or seeking their consent — an act deemed a violation of democratic rights.

The memorandum further alleged that the installation of smart meters is a calculated attempt to impose an additional financial burden on the public. It warned that through these meters, electricity companies could implement variable tariff plans at different times, leading to inflated electricity prices.

Moreover, the move is seen as an effort to strip consumers of their fundamental right to use electricity first and pay later, thus shifting the burden and risk entirely onto the consumer.