Guwahati, Sep 16: Amid complaints raised by consumers across the state against the “abnormally high” electricity bills charged by Assam Power Distribution Company Limited (APDCL) in the past couple of months, Assam chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Friday blamed ‘faulty readings in some newly-installed smart meters” as the reason for such a situation.
“There has been no hike in power tariff but instances (complaints) of unreasonable bill amounts have come in from consumers which are due to faulty readings in some of the newly installed smart meters. Instructed APDCL to urgently fix the faulty smart meters and address public grievances,” the chief minister informed on Twitter.
The chief minister’s response came after Opposition MLAs raised the issue in the Assam Assembly and demanded a statement from the state government.
Reacting to their demands amid noisy scenes, Speaker Biswajit Daimary tried to pacify the legislators, saying that “since there has been increased demand for power, the government had to buy power and so the electricity rates have increased.”
When asked by reporters, state power minister Nandita Gorlosa accepted that public complaints regarding inflated bills was a concern for the department and that a committee would be constituted to look into the matter.
Meanwhile, Assam Trinamool Congress president Ripun Bora on Friday appealed to the state government and APDCL to take measures to immediately take corrective measures to provide relief to the consumers.
“Inflation has already made lives miserable…now the abnormally high bills in August compared to July have made matters worse for the consumers,” Bora said.
The party on Friday also submitted a memorandum to the APDCL authorities here demanding immediate steps to address the matter.
It may be mentioned APDCL aims to install 6.2 lakh smart meters in the state under the Rs 566.33-crore central government’s Revamped Distribution Sector Scheme (RDSS). APDCL has installed over two lakh smart meters from November 2021 to May 2022.
