Massive Protest Staged in front of Guwahati's Bijuli Bhawan by All Assam Electricity Consumers Association

Reported by: Samdipto Chakravarti

All Assam Electricity Consumers Association staged a massive protest at broad daylight in front of Bijuli Bhawan in Guwahati on 25th of April against the replacement of prepaid smart meters against consumer interest. The police, however tried to stop the electricity consumers from front of the huge megamart of Paltan Bazar with playcards adorned with various demands causing intense tension among the customers.

The protestors somehow managed to enter the Bijuli Bhavan square after crossing the barricade of the huge police force and started protesting for a long time chanting various slogans like cancel the prepaid meter against consumer interest, stop the cycle of privatization of electricity, start the prepaid meter and loot the people and many more. 

Ajay Acharya, the convenor of All Assam Electricity Consumers Association stated that after a few days of the replacement of smart postpaid meters, APDCL authorities forced the customers to take prepaid meters by threatening to disconnect the electricity connection if they did not replace the earlier smart meters. However, before replacing this smart meter, there was even no discussion with the customers at all.  

He further said that after the installation of new smart meters, complaints of electricity bills at abnormal rates had been raised. The current charges increased unexpectedly after the smart meter installation.Therefore, as a step towards privatization of the electricity distribution system, a strong demand for closure was upraised pending the decision to install the smart prepaid meters.

 After the protest, a memorandum was signed by the conveners Ajay Acharya and Hillol Bhattacharya respectively which was then sent to the Chairman of Assam Electricity Regulatory Commission through APDCL authorities. Besides, Sushil Pal, Idrish Ali and others were also present during the protest.