E-Narada NEWS
The smart meter prevents electricity misuse, reduces transmission loss, helps monitor electricity usage, and indirectly saves the government huge amounts of money. However, the scheme may remain shrouded in darkness, as Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) accused the Congress government in Karnataka of manipulating the tender process to loot a whopping 15568 crores.
Terming it as the biggest scam in Karnataka, former Deputy Chief Minister and BJP MLA Dr.C.N. Aswathnarayan made a shocking allegation of manipulating smart meter tender process against the ruling congress government. He addressed the media in the BJP party office on March 25 and exposed the irregularities in the tender process and highlighted huge corruption in the scheme, with a compelling PowerPoint presentation.
Ashwathnarayan clarified that replacing existing digital electrical meters with smart meters is a welcome move as it regulates the usage of electricity and is beneficial to both consumers and the government, but there is a severe lapse of transparency in the tender process and urged the government to cancel the tender.
“With the proposed smart meter scheme, Karnataka government is set to loot people to the tune of 15568 Crores. We urge the Government to cancel the tender and go for fresh tenders by adhering to rules. The government should introduce smart meters free of cost to existing consumers and make the smart meters compulsory only for new users. We will not rest until we take this issue to a logical end,” Ashwathnarayan said.
MLA S.R. Vishwanath, Bengaluru North District President S. Harish, and Bengaluru Central District President Saptagiri Gowda were present in the press meet.
