In the month of January 2025, organizations of electricity workers, other workers’ organizations and peoples’ organizations in many parts of the country intensified their opposition to the Prepaid Smart Meter (PSM) installation program.
Organizations of power sector of workers in Maharashtra including Maharashtra State Electricity Workers’ Federation, Subordinate Engineers Association and Maharashtra Rajya Magasvargiya Vidyut Karmachari Sangathan organized a state-wide agitation on 30 January ’25. Several workers’ organizations like Shramik Mukti Dal, Kamgar Ekta Committee, Hamal Panchayat, Aanganwadi Karmachari Sangh, Shramik Janata Sangh, Shramik Hakk Andolan also participated in various actions, denouncing the Maharashtra government’s plan of installation of PSMs. In many places across Maharashtra like Thane, Nagpur, Pune, Bhandara, Gadhinglaj etc., various organizations have come together and formed Prepaid Smart Meter Virodhi Kruti Samitis. Local units of AITUC, CITU, Maharashtra Rajya Kisan Sabha, Communist Ghadar Party of India, Communist Party of India, Communist Party of India (Marxist), Shetkari Kamgar Paksh and so on have also joined these committees. These committees have organized demonstrations and meetings in their areas. Grampanchayats in Shahapur and Bhiwandi areas passed resolutions expressing their complete opposition to the installation of PSM.
Electricity employees of Puducherry demanded stoppage of installation of PSMs. In Andhra Pradesh the Vidyut Viniyogadarula Aikyavedi (Electricity Consumers Union) demanded the cancellation of PSM in Andhra Pradesh.
Both the umbrella organizations of Power sector workers namely National Coordination Committee of Electricity Employees and Engineers (NCCOEEE) & All India Federation of Electricity Employees (AIFEE) have already declared their total opposition to the PSM program. Several kisan organizations have also vehemently opposed PSMs.
During 2024, a booklet entitled “Unitedly oppose anti-worker, anti-people Smart Electricity Meter”, co-signed by 46 workers’, farmers’ and people’s organizations, was widely circulated. This played a major role in demystifying the true intentions of the government and capitalist class behind the push for PSMs. In 2024 itself people opposed PSMs in many states like Jammu-Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, Punjab, West Bengal, Assam, Orissa, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh etc. This opposition forced the local governments to temporarily slow down PSM installation, with Parliamentary and State elections round the corner. For example, in Maharashtra the then Deputy Chief Minister and Power Minister, promised in the Vidhan Sabha that the PSMs will not be installed for general household consumers and small business establishments. However, as soon as election results were out on 27 November, the Maharashtra government has restarted the PSM installation drive. So is the case in many other states.
PSMs will surely lead to increased tariff for all the consumers besides the fact that the consumers will be completely at the mercy of private companies which will be responsible for maintaining the PSMs for very long periods, ranging from 60 to 96 months. Installation of PSMs will render tens of thousands of power sector employees, both permanent and contract employees, jobless.
All those who are opposing PSMs are correctly raising the above issues. They are also pointing out the main issue, that PSM installation is a first major step and a precursor to speedy privatization of electricity distribution. In several states various big capitalists have already openly declared their interest in getting distribution licenses. For example, in Maharashtra various big capitalist groups like Adani, Tata, Jindal etc. have shown their interest in distribution in 16 major cities of Maharashtra.
The organizations that are opposing SMs are also raising a demand that a basic necessity like electric power should not be looked at as a source of earning profit. Providing all such basic necessities to all people without exception, at affordable prices and of good quality, is one of the fundamental responsibilities of any government. Under the rule of the capitalist ruling class, all the parties of the capitalists who form the governments at the centre and in states, are refusing to fulfill this fundamental responsibility. It is the working people who will have to establish this principle in practice by establishing the rule of the workers and peasants.
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Militant morcha of electricity consumers forces Mahavitaran administration to suspend smart meter installation in Gadhinglaj, Kolhapur, Maharashtra On 6 January 2025 Gadhinglaj, a city in Kolhapur district of Maharashtra, reverberated with slogans raised by around 2000 people, who took out a militant morcha demanding a stop to the mandatory installation of smart meters. The morcha was organized under the banner of Electricity Consumers’ Struggle Committee, Gadhinglaj division (Aajra, Bhudargad, Gadhinglaj, Chandgad). Notably, activists from Chiplun, Karad, and Ichalkaranji also joined this morcha. Shramik Mukti Dal, Maharashtra State Electricity Workers’ Federation and other workers’ and peasants’ organizations such as Sarva Shramik Sangathana, Baliraja Shetkari, and Swabhimani Shetkari actively took part in the morcha. The protesting consumers demanded that the contract given to the Adani Group for supplying smart prepaid meters to Aajra, Gadhinglaj, Chandgad, and Bhudargad talukas should be scrapped immediately. They also demanded that the Maharashtra government’s agreement with the Adani Group regarding smart meters should be displayed in Marathi in prominent places in every village in the region. Additionally, public hearings should be organized on this topic at the taluka level. Consumers said that they will not allow any smart meters to be installed and strongly condemned forceful installation under various pretexts. Recognizing that smart meters are a step towards discom privatisation, they raised slogans of “The privatisation of Mahavitaran must be stopped!” Consumers also noted that the introduction of smart meters will threaten the jobs of several contract and permanent electricity workers. Another demand raised in the morcha was that farmers who want power connections for under 7.5-hp pumps should be given these connections promptly without enforcing solar power connections. The protesting consumers forced the Executive Engineer of Mahavitaran to send a notice to Adani Energy Solutions to suspend their work in Gadhinglaj division! Enthused by this, in many other places like Kolhapur, consumers and activists forced the closure of the local office given to Adani company in the premises of Mahavitaran. On 10 February an even bigger morcha is being planned in Sindhudurg district of Maharashtra. |