Farmers threaten gherao of PSPCL employees against installation of smart meters
Farmers have announced to gherao Punjab State Power Corporation Limited (PSPCL) employees if they come to install smart meters in their villages. In some villages, farmer unions have also got made a similar announcement.
PSPCL has around 95 lakh power consumers and it was planning to install 96,000 meters in urban and rural areas of the state as a pilot project. The officials claimed that the installation work started a few days ago. Given the privatisation of electricity, farmer unions in Punjab allege a deep rooted conspiracy behind installation of digital smart meters.
A video of announcement appealing farmers to protest against installation of meters has been making rounds over social media groups, with message: “The ruling Captain government in Punjab has brought a new rule under which a digital meter will be installed with a chip affixed for prepaid electricity.
The electricity in our home will be like a mobile recharge and when the money from the account is finished the electricity supply will be stopped till the time we get our chip recharged.”
Farmer unions have also appealed to the farmers to not allow installation of these smart meters and protest or gherao the PSPCL employees reaching their villages to install them.
