Even as CPM’s politburo raised a red flag against Centre’s push for the deployment of smart electric meters, on Tuesday informed the Union power ministry thatKSEBis all set to replace the legacy meters with smart meters.
Also,power minister K Krishnankuttyhas given instructions to officials concerned to explore thealternative modelsuggested by pro-CPM unions in KSEB for switching to the smart meter regime.
Many states were forced to implement the scheme and thereby withdraw from the responsibility of power distribution and hand it over to private companies for profit maximization. This will impose an unbearable burden on the poor and farmers. This project must be scrapped immediately, said the CPM in its statement.
But, the issue has not even come up for discussion in the state cabinet. Also, CPM Leadership appears to be confident of circumventing the politburo approach by presenting a Kerala-model alternative to TOTEX model project implementation where private firms install and collect cost of meters from consumers in equal instalments over seven years.
Sources confirmed that the state government, following the protest by pro-CPM unions, has finally decided to weigh the feasibility of an alternative model suggested by the unions. Union leaders were only opposing the TOTEX model and had suggested the deployment of smart meters by KSEB, pivoting on the technology available with C-DAC.
Since Centre has unequivocally clarified to state that unless the latter sticks to the modernization plans recommended in the sector, it could lose the grant offered for such a project. The grant component of such projects is 60%.